TMNT: Absolution
by Undead Saturdays
Summary: Four mutant turtles leave home for the first time, leading them down a path of many, many obstacles stranger than them. A reboot fic started in 2015, revised to be slightly less crummy for today.
1. Chapter 1

Season 1 episode 1 "Birthday surprise"

Four brothers. Four giant mutant, ninja, turtles, but regardless, they were brothers more or less. They sat around a table, celebrating their fifteenth birthday, or rather, mutation-day. Leonardo was the eldest, he often took responsibility for his brothers and wore a blue bandana. To his right was the second oldest, wearing a red bandana, Raphael, who was hot-tempered, but deep down, would do anything for his family. To Leonardo's left was Donatello, the smartest, clad in purple, and the youngest, Michelangelo: a free-spirited 'party dude'. Then, sitting right across from the eldest, was a giant brown mutant rat wearing a maroon robe: Splinter. He acted as their father for the last fifteen years.

They ate old cake Mikey found in the trash. Wasn't the best, but it was the best they could get.

Leonardo put down his fork, pushed his plate away, and started twiddling his thumbs, "Father, now that we're fifteen," he looked down and slumped a bit, "...can we...go...to the surface for a while?" he spat out quickly.

Splinter set down his fork and looked at his son "Why? I already go out and search for everything that we need to survive."

Leo stood up and his brothers watched him "Yes, I understand that, but only you get to see the world. What about us? We want to see too."

"Father, if you don't let us, we'll bug you until you break down," Mikey said with a mischevious grin.

Splinter was about to say something, then Leo went on and on about historical and fictional figures being great leaders, and that if they were let out of the sewers, he'd be that leader.

Donnie put down his fork and said, "Please. I'll build you a new TV with all the new junk I find out there."

"If you don't let us out there, I'll break a lamp," Raph said with a laugh.

Leo continued, "...and George Washington…"

Splinter slammed his hands on the table. "My sons. Please, let me speak. If I let you and your brothers above the surface, promise me that you'll only go out at night, and promise me to be back by ten o'clock."

The turtles looked at each other, then back to their father and nodded. Mikey closed his eyes and fist-pumped and said, "Best birthday present ever!"

An hour later they were packed up and ready to go, just waiting for nightfall. They were all in the living room, Donnie started upgrading their shell-phones in the event of an emergency, Raph punched the punching bag murmuring to himself, and Leo and Mikey sat together reading comics.

Mikey was reading issue forty-five of his beloved Justice force comics, then he went wide-eyed and looked at Leo "Dude, not to spoil it, but someone doesn't survive this issue."

Raph stopped for a moment and looked at Mikey, "It's a comic, what do you expect? So, which villain was it? Hmm?"

Mikey shook his head, "Nuh uh. It was a good guy, thank you very much. It was Ananda."

"Oh, crap. Really?"

"Mmmm hmm."

"Thanks for the spoilers, guys," Leo whined. He turned to look at Donnie. "Are the phones ready?"

Donnie's tongue was sticking out as he screwed in one last screw "Done! Now we can track each other if we happen to get lost!" he said with a big smile, handing the others their phones back.

"Right, that's not creepy at all," Raph said, rolling his eyes when he got his phone back.

"Alright, I'll go let master Splinter know that'd we're ready," Leonardo said as he walked down the abandoned sewer that served as a hallway.

At the very end was Splinter's room, and he peeked inside "Umm, we're going out now," he said pointing down the hall, then walked back into the living room.

"Alright, who's ready," he said with a confident look on his face and his hands on his hips. The others stood wide-eyed and Donatello pointed past Leonardo, making him turn around and go "Huh?"

Splinter walked up to them and came to a stop right in front of Leo, "My son, please stay out of trouble. Stick to the shadows, only interfere when someone absolutely needs help. And that goes for all of you, understood?"

"Hai sensei." they all said it together, then walked out, both excited, and worried.

A young woman - about twenty or so, with long red hair held back in a bun, green-blue eyes, and an outfit consisting of a yellow t-shirt, blue jeans, purple sneakers, and a white lab coat - stood next to an African American man - probably about mid-thirties, with glasses, and wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a lab coat, similar to his partner.

The two worked together on small robots, called 'mousers', made to hunt down mice and rats.

The woman looked at the man, excited that their product was ready to be shown, "I can't believe I helped you invent such a revolutionary machine." she said with a big grin.

Baxter looked at his assistant and smiled a bit "Well, I don't think I would've come up with this without-" his phone started vibrating in his pocket. He took it out and looked at the caller ID "One minute, I need to take this. April, you can take a break if you'd like." he said, making small swatting motions, trying to give her a hint to leave.

April nodded, said "Later," and walked out.

Soon she left, Baxter answered his phone, said "On it", and turned on a few mousers, some of which hopped out the door, others burrowed.

Splinter sat quietly in his room, meditating when suddenly a crash was heard. He got up and saw a bunch of small robots heading his way. Each mouse that got close enough began attacking, biting away and clawing with their little feet. He smashed mousers left and right until he got to the living room. The couch was more torn up than usual, the TV was smashed, the coffee table was knocked over, but luckily, the phone was still intact.

He picked up the phone and called Leonardo.

It was already 9:07 PM. The four turtles sat atop a building, right across from a bank, waiting for some action. Leo's phone rang. He pulled it out of his belt and answered "Yes? Hello?"

Splinter could be heard panting over the phone "My sons, come quickly," then there was a huge crash, followed by beeping.

Leo turned off the phone "Guys, let's go. Splinter's in trouble."

While Leo, Raph, and Donnie ran right, towards home, while Mikey was in such a hurry he ran left. Raph sighed and ran for Mikey, grabbed the back of his mask, and pulled his younger brother in the direction of the others.

Meanwhile, the alarms in the bank began going off while the Turtles walked off.

April came back from getting dinner. She probably spent about thirty minutes out. As she walked up to the building, there was a blonde girl with ice blue eyes - about seventeen, wearing a navy blue tank top, blue short shorts, and a lab coat, clearly faking being a scientist.

April looked at the girl curiously. She looked at her phone, checking for a new text from Baxter about this new employee. When she looked back up, the girl seemed to have vanished. She tapped her finger on her chin.

She proceeded to walk into the building. Mousers hopped up and down throughout the halls, every once and a while, a crash could be heard. None of them seemed to pay attention to April, but they were certainly bothersome. April passed by Baxter's office and overheard him still on the phone. His back was turned, so she stopped and watched from the doorway.

Baxter sounded uneasy "Y-yes sir. I programmed them to rob the banks for you," he rubbed his forehead, "Yes. April O'Neil is on break. Yes, she has no idea and I plan to 'get rid' of her as soon as possible." April gasped, and Baxter turned around, "Sir, may I be excused for a minute," he hung up the phone and spoke into a small remote "Mousers, attack!"

April screamed and ran outside. Mousers snapped at her, tripping her and making it difficult as she ran through the streets.

The turtles climbed into the sewers, one after one. There was a boarded-up section, where water wouldn't flow. They ran until they got to the center of the abandoned area, this served as their living room. Upon entry, Mikey got close to Donnie and began hugging his arm, crying at the sight of the wreckage, and his voice cracked to the point that he almost sounded like a little kid, "Daddy?"

There was a small smashing noise, followed by a whir. Splinter came out from the kitchen, his kimono was torn up, but it was clear who won.

Leo looked into his father's eyes "W-what happened here?"

Splinter put a hand on Leonardo's shoulder and said: "Come with me." He sat in the middle of the floor and motioned for the Turtles to sit in front of him.

April climbed into the sewers in the hopes that she couldn't be found down there. Before she put the manhole cover back a mouser came up to her. She smashed its head off and ran off. She saw the boarded up area and moved a few boards aside and passed through, in the hopes that she could hide.

Splinter could sense April coming. They saw each other. She fainted. A thud sounded. The turtles turned around.

Mikey screamed.

Donnie looked at her curiously "It's a girl..."

Raph said something under his breath that sounded rather foul.

Leo walked over to her and looked back at Splinter "What should we do?"


	2. Chapter 2

**The real mission**

April laid on the couch in the lair. She heard unfamiliar voices, although she just simply passed it off as a dream. Just like everything else that just happened.

"There, good as new," Michelangelo said with a smile, as he stood up from the right side of the couch, hold duct tape in his left hand, and patting the patched up spot with the right. He looked over to see what Donnie was doing, then asked in his 'kiddie' voice, "What'cha doin' now?"

Donatello let out a long sigh. He was kneeling down on the left of the couch, inspecting the woman's ankle "Still helping...her..." he answered, still unsure of what to call her, "Her ankle appears to be sprained. I'm not sure what to do, I can't find my first aid kit in all the wreckage..." his voice trailed off when he realized that the solution was wrapped around his head and fell atop his shoulder.

Right when he was about to rip the back of his bandana off, a shadow cast over Donatello and two ragged strips of red fabric fluttered in front of him. Raphael stood behind his younger brother and smirked when he looked up at him.

"Why did you give this to me?" Donnie asked, the right half of his mask moved up as if he was raising an eyebrow.

Raph's smile went away, and he became embarrassed "Because y'know. If there's any scrapes there, then my mask is already red, and it's not like we can do laundry." This wasn't true. Not entirely. He had the idea before Donnie started tugging at his bandana, and he just wanted this woman out of their home as soon as possible.

April murmuring to herself in a half sleepy state as Donatello began wrapping the pieces of fabric around her ankle. "Irma...please don't tell me you're pet-sitting again..." Her eyes fluttered open, and everyone went still. Mikey's wide smile and big eyes went nervous, Raph's mouth was slightly agape, and Donnie stopped when she started rubbing her eyes.

When the young woman realized what was standing right in front of her, she let out a small scream "What the heck are you?!"

The three looked at each other searching for words, exchanging nervous looks. Just then, Leonardo and Splinter walked in from the hall.

April looked at the rat, then the red pieces of fabric around her ankle. She began taking it off, only for it to hurt, followed by Donnie gently saying "Please ma'am, I-i was just trying to help. You hurt your ankle."

All April could do was raise an eyebrow and asked "Wait...I wasn't just hearing voices? You, you can talk?!"

Raph snickered "Pfft. You said for us to tell you what we are. Didn't ya' expect us to talk?"

April looked around "Someone, please explain what is going on?"

Splinter stood in front April, who was now sitting up hugging her legs on the right side of the couch, while Donnie was on the left, looking curious.

The large rat spoke, surprising the young woman, despite all that happened, "First, miss, please tell us who you are," he said calmly.

"April O'Neil. I-" she cut off mid-sentence to wonder if she should tell them anything more, although the coat may have given it away. "Now, someone tell me who and what you are," she said in an unamused voice.

Splinter smiled a bit and began speaking "I am Splinter, and these are my sons, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo," he said, pointing to each one as he went along, "our story begins, fifteen years ago, I was a ninja, trying to capture a criminal- Oruko Saki. He began running a corporation, TCRI. He wanted to use their equipment to create a super army, and destroy the Hamato clan, just to end a decades-long family feud. I was working there, posing as a scientist, when I stumbled upon something bigger: plans to rules the world. The employees there, they were actually petty against the idea, but they were forced to. When I was caught though, they locked me up with their experiments and things waiting to be tested on," he stopped for a moment to observe Mikey bouncing a little "I escaped, and brought a small tank of turtles to carry some papers I had foun-"

Splinter was cut off by Mikey excitedly finishing the story "Then, then, the dudes threw some ooze at us, and, and, father went into the sewers to hide from them, and when we woke up..." he motioned towards the others. He realized what he'd done, made a small pouty face and said "Sorry dad," which simply made their father roll his eyes, if not, let out the smallest laugh.

April just gave the two a curious look "So, you expect me to believe this? C'mon, be real." Then her lips curled into a twisted smile "I bet this is all a dream!" She paid no attention to the broken mousers on the floor until Raphael accidentally kicked one "crud...this, this isn't..."

Leo sat between April and Donnie, "Ma'am, can you please tell us what _you're_ doing now?"

April looked down and sighed "My boss. He sent these robots, 'mousers' as he called them, he sent them after me. I don't know what's going on, but clearly, I've stumbled upon something big."

Leonardo and Raphael both gave her the same raised eyebrow- or in their case mask -look. Leo cleared his throat and attempted to sound tougher "How 'big'?"

April sat back and said "Look, I don't know, really. He mentioned something about robbing a bank and that's it."

The older two brothers glanced at each other, then back at April. Donnie sat cross-legged supporting his head with his hand, and Mikey was standing near the kitchen with an old piece of pizza. They all looked towards their father curiously.

Splinter rubbed his chin "Please, tell us more about these 'mousers'."

April stood up, still shaking a little "Well..."

Sirens went off. Banks were being robbed, but no one knew by who. The only evidence that could be found was tunneling too small for someone to climb into.

Fortunately for said criminal, no one could find him no matter how hard they tried. And even if they did, so what? He had an intern who could take the blame for it.

Baxter sat on the floor of his office, packing money from the mousers into suitcases and cliche bags, occasionally sneaking a dollar or two for himself. Maybe it wasn't worth it. All he wanted was to sell more than TVs and DVD players, this invention was meant to be it, but it was turned down many times. He was promised a way to get them out there, but first, he had to prove their worth. Nah. This. This is what he must do.

He continued to silently put away the money when the phone rang. He got up and answered "Hello?"

" _Stockman_!" the man on the phone screamed.

"Y-yes, sir?"

"Channel six. Now."

Baxter turned on a small television on his desk and put it on channel six. A woman was going on about recent bank robberies, and that the cops "think" they're close to finding the culprit.

"So? No one can trace them but me. No one can climb through those tunnels. And even if I get caught, one, I have an intern who can take the heat for screwing things up, and two, you'll still get your money."

The man on the phone mumbled something and sighed "Fine. Better not screw this up Stockman, or else you'll be dealing with me and my second in command. We're watching you, Baxter Stockman." The phone went silent for a moment, followed by beeping to imply that he had hung up.

That may have been a short conversation, but the idea of whatever his boss will do sent chills up Baxter's spine.

Donnie was on his phone, looking at articles about StockCorp. All he found was a few articles about TVs breaking. Mikey was watching a movie called "Dem dumb theifs who can't use proper grammar (title intentionally misspelled)". Okay, maybe that wasn't the name, but no one was paying attention or even cared. Even Mikey- his eyes were on the screen, but his mind was adrift, thinking about how they just met someone new.

April was on her phone just like Donnie, looking up recent bank robberies in the area. "Don, check this out," she said, patting the space next to her. Don scooted across the couch and leaned over her shoulder, and April continued "Each bank appears to be farther away from StockCorp. So, if looking at the most recent one, then the next should be here, on the corner of...let's see, fifth avenue."

Leo was looking around. The gears in his head were already turning.

"Gimme all da money!" said a guy in Mikey's movie. That gave Leo a clever idea.

Leo finished writing down his 'plan' and handed it to Raph. "Call 911 and read this."

Raph grumbled and pulled out his phone "Hello? I'mma steal da monies at da-" he paused for a moment and gave Leo a sharp glare "The heck, Leo? This isn't even proper English!"

"Just keep going!"

"Fine." He continued reading "...Uhh, let's see, where was I...oh yeah! I'mma steal all da monies at da bank on the twelfth street. Ah ha ha ha. Try and stop me's." Then he hung up, "How's that bro?"

Leo smirked and gave a thumbs up, "Perfect."

They all stood together. Ready to go and fight. Leo was going to give orders on the way, but first, they needed to find a way for transportation.

Leo sighed "Looks like we're going on foot. Besides, we've stayed up this late plenty of times. Practically nocturnal. Sorta…" he gives a chuckle. "Cartoon marathons are useful, okay?"

April looked him in the eye "What about me? If anything, I have a comfy bed to sink into and a roommate who must be worried sick."

Mikey's childish side kicked in and his eyes got big "You can sleep here! We'll give you pillows, and blankets, and you can stay on the couch!"

April smiled "Sorry little guy but-"

"But we're already worrying Splinter with even thinking about going out this late. Do you really think he'll allow someone we just met to stay here too?" Leo interrupted.

Raph leaned back a little "Whatever happened to mister 'I want to be a hero, I want to do good'?" He said, mocking his older brother a bit.

Leo growled "That was then, this is now. Things are serious, I say no. And letting her go home is the right thing to do because she has someone to look out for."

Donnie looked at the two arguing. "How about April calls her roommate and gives an excuse for not being home? And leave father a note? Besides, shouldn't she stay low for now?" he said quietly. At least in comparison to everyone else right now.

They all looked at him. Leo looked down and mouthed the word "fine". April pulled out her phone and began texting.

The youngest's bright eyes returned. He said "I'll get her set up!" and ran to his room.

By the time the Turtles left it was 4:30 AM. Hopefully, the cops were still busy. Besides, it had only been ten minutes. Just as Mikey had suggested, they let April sleep on the couch while they went out.

The bank stood unguarded. Looked like the cops were still at the one Raph said he would rob. Perfect. Just in time. Alarms started blaring, they all covered their ears. Or whatever turtles have. Donnie disabled the alarm and picked the lock of any door in their way. Pick a lock, 'ninja' their way to the next place, Raph knocks out the guard, do it again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

They made it to the safe. Donnie unlocked it. When the door was open, the small robots screeched.

"Guys. A little help?" Donnie said as he tried to pick one up, but it kept snapping at him.

Raphael nearly stabbed it but Donnie stopped him. "No! We still need at least one to take home. Feel free to smash all the others though. I'll disable it."

Raph rolled his eyes. Mikey started screaming. The elder three turned around to see one of the small robots snipping at his legs. He tripped and started scooting back against the wall. He kicked it and it broke easily. That little mischievous smirk of his formed. He got up and kicked a few. Raph was pleasantly surprised.

"That's... That's it? Oh well, just makes it faster to smash 'em then," Raph said. He picked one up and stuck a sai right through its head. The three bashed the mousers quickly while Donatello turned the one off.

"Alright, Leo, I'm ready!" Donnie chimed.

"Then let's go boys." The Turtles snuck back out and climbed back into the sewers.

Baxter Stockman was busy in his lab, bothered by the sound of his phone alerting him that most mousers had gone offline. Except for one. It was inactive and could no longer move, but the camera was still functioning. He saw the image of a purple-clad turtle admiring the small robot in what appeared to be the sewers.

Baxter was furious, even more so when this turtle started showing the mouser off and he saw a woman. A woman he knew. April O'Neil. She had a hand in this. She must pay. He pushed the thought aside though and turned to two thugs he found off the streets for his experiments. He promised them money so they could legally change their names to Bebop and Rocksteady. Maybe it wasn't a good investment, but it was a lie anyway.

He picked up a syringe of glowing green liquid. "Alright, who's first?"

The two looked at each other. The one with the purple mohawk- otherwise referred to as Bebop -raised his hand "On a scale of one to ten, how much will this hurt?"

"Twenty."

Both started pleading, but it was too late. The liquid was injected into them and they screamed.


	3. Chapter 3

**The new guys**

It has now been one day since the Turtles went out. They had slept a few hours during the day. Now it's night again. They were all awake and ready.

Mikey had begged April to tell a little about her life. She agreed, only if he told her something.

Soon they were all sitting in the living room telling stories and laughing. Mikey was happy, knowing this woman wasn't just his imagination and he wasn't dreaming. Maybe the others were too, they just hadn't shown it as much, because they- mostly Leo, Raph, and Splinter, as Donnie was a little more trusting -still wanted to be cautious.

Splinter looked at the clock. It was already 9:00 PM. He cleared his throat to get the attention of the chatting youngsters. "Miss O'Neil, I believe you should get going to your roommate."

"Oh, right! She must be worried sick. And I should give her the news. Or, give it the best I can anyway." She said while she took down her hair and ran her fingers through it, tying it back up into a loose ponytail.

Leo looked at Splinter, Splinter looked at April, and said, "Miss, we cannot have you speak of us."

April nodded and did a zipper motion across her mouth.

Mikey got up with her, his eyes sad, yet still somehow excited "I'll show you the way out! Please, can I, dad?" Splinter nodded with approval.

Raph got up and put a protective arm around his little brother "I'm comin' too. Last thing we need is for Miss-" his voice got higher- "'I work for an evil scientist and never suspected a thing,' to pull a fast one on us."

April just simply rolled her eyes. Raph stepped between the two, holding on to both of their hands, only he held Mikey's to keep them together, and April's to keep her from getting any funny ideas.

Under the boards, through the long tunnel. They arrived at the ladder, leading to a manhole cover. Raph put on a big fake smile "Alright, time to go, I bet Irma and her pets are worried sick about you, blah blah blah!" he said as he pushed her towards the ladder. She leaned against it, watching the two turtles talk, and waiting for a proper goodbye.

Mikey looked at Raph and started pouting. Raph knew what this was. This was when he wanted something. A lot. "Mike, I ain't lookin'." The whimpering got louder "Mike..." Small tears were rolling down Mikey's cheeks "Alright! What, Mikey, what?!"

Mikey pointed at April and spoke, "I know you don't like her, but three things. One, we found something big here. Can't she help? Two, we're heroes! Gotta help her!"

Raph put his hands up "Woah woah woah. It was one mission, we're not quite heroes."

"Whatever. Anyway, three, a friend!"

Raph looked over at the girl. She stood there watching the two brothers innocently, waiting to say bye. If she were to turn on them, she would have already done it. "So, what ya' want us to do?"

"Phone number?"

Raph sighed and walked up to her. "My Lil' bro here wants your number," April raised an eyebrow and smirked "No no, not like that. He uh, really likes making friends. Plus he thinks you can help us."

"Okay," she got out a notepad, wrote something down, and tucked it in Michelangelo's mask, smiling. Mikey pulled it out and immediately shot her a text. April received it looked at Raph "Mind giving my number to the others? I'll call or text them back soon as they do."

Raph grumbled "Fine. Now see ya', and get out." Maybe he did soften up a little on the inside. She didn't try to slaughter them, and Michelangelo did have a point. He made sure April got out safely, then walked Mikey back home.

When they got home, Leo was already getting prepared for patrol. "You're back. Must have been a long goodbye."

Mikey handed Leo the slip of paper "It's April's number."

"I'll give her a call later. Right now, are you ready?" Leo asked with a grin.

A college student stood in an alleyway. His back against the wall, as a slightly older and bulkier boy had cornered him. The younger wore a hockey mask. It was simple, but it was good for "vigilante-ing". Unless it was against these guys. Still, he wasn't scared. If anything, he was p'ed off, especially tonight.

"Hun, I'm not in the mood for it. I failed my test today, and if that ain't bad enough, I have to deal with you," he said as he ducked under the older one's (or Hun's) arm and tried to walk off.

Hun grabbed him by the back of his shirt. "C'mon Casey, help a guy out. We're both in college, right? We both gotta pay, right? We're both going through a rough time, two of my guys went missing last night."

"I don't care. I draw the line when I see you beating up innocent people and robbin' places though. Why don't ya' get a job you bum?"

Hun let out a cackle and pushed Casey into a pile of trash "Because this is more fun!"

Casey got up and began running towards Hun. "It's scum like you that make me get Fs!" He pulled a bat out of a bag on his back. He swung, but Hun caught it.

"Purple dragons, attack!" Immediately, people who appeared to have been waiting right around the corner started coming towards Casey. They weren't in college, they just liked cracking skulls for this guy.

Up above, the turtles sat atop a building, watching. They all wanted to help but chose not to interfere unless absolutely necessary.

Casey had knocked out these goons quick with his bat. Clearly, Hun had chosen poorly. Luckily none were hurt. Well, none were hurt badly. Hun himself was a challenge. Casey hit him a few times, but no falling down.

Then, something strange happened. A man-sized rhino and a warthog walked into the alley. They both wore twisted smiles on their faces. They scared both, Casey and Hun.

"Hiya, Hun. We're giving you our resignations. But first, since someone's here..." The rhino trailed off the let his partner finish.

The warthog turned to Casey and snorted. "Hi, Jones. Remember us?"

They stared at the tattered clothes of the two. The piercings, the helmet, the sunglasses, the mohawk. Casey recognized them as Hun's favorite henchmen judging by the clothes, although he never knew their names. Hun's eyes went wide "Bebop and Rocksteady? Why are you two wearing those ridiculous costumes?"

They looked at each other and smirked. The rhino, Rocksteady, picked up Casey's bat and broke it in half. "These aren't costumes," he said. Then all heck broke loose. If Casey was there, they had something to take care of. All the times he kicked their butts, this was their time for revenge.

On top of the building, the turtles remained. Raph pulled out his sais "I'm helpin'."

Before he could jump, Leonardo grabbed his arm. "But, he might make it out?" he said, with uncertainty in his voice.

Raph rolled his eyes. "Dude, he doesn't have a chance."

"Raph's right. We can't just sit around. He's being beaten to a pulp," said Donatello, as he got up and pulled out his staff.

Raphael smirked. He jumped down, followed by Mikey and Donnie. Leonardo came last and let out a long sigh. Yeah, Raph was right, Leo just didn't want to admit it.

Raph punched Beebop in the back. Beebop turned around and struck fear in Raphael. He tried to catch Raph, but he dodged and ran to Casey and Hun.

While the others fought, Raph was yelling at the two to go. Hun got up and immediately ran, but Casey shook his head and said "No way," then fought.

Rocksteady's phone rang. He looked at it for a moment, then grunted "C'mon 'Bop, boss wants us." The two ran out of the alley, leaving everyone surprised.

Mikey had a big smile and stepped in front of Casey. "Hi! I'm Michelangelo and these are my brothers and-" he was cut off by Donatello, who covered his mouth and pulled him away.

Raph helped Casey up, even if it took a moment for Casey to accept his help. "So like, what are you? Who were they?" Casey asked.

Leo just looked at him with a straight face, "We don't know anything about those two. Look, don't tell anyone about this. If you do, we'll all be in trouble." With a cloud of smoke, they were gone. Just like that. Casey realized that he was probably running late for a date, which he had forgotten all about.

April finally got home. She stepped through her door to find her roommate, Irma, sitting on the couch, looking as if she was going out for a date.

"Hey, Ir-" Irma ran to April and hugged her.

"Where have you been? I was getting worried because you didn't come home this morning? And why do you smell like that?"

"I was fired..." She sat down and thought. Sometimes, if she had to stay late, Baxter would just let her go and sleep in his office, and he'd bring her breakfast. Now it seemed like it was just a fantasy, ruined by reality.

"April? Are you alright?"

"Irma, what if you found something out that could change everything? The way you look at things, the knowledge that something that once seemed impossible, actually is possible?"

Irma took off her glasses and began cleaning them "What happened?" She put her glasses back on and sat on the armrest of the couch.

Just when April opened her mouth, there was knock on the door.

Irma opened the door "Casey!" So this was why she was dressed up. "April, this is Casey. Casey, this is April."

Casey looked at April for a moment "Hey, I've seen you around campus!"

"Right, aren't you that guy that flunks every other test?"

Irma looked at Casey's bruises. "What happened? Who did this to you?"

Casey blinked and debated in his head "Nothin'. It's just a few scratches from my last practice. Also, umm, I didn't know we were dressing up. Do you want me to go home and change?"

"No, no. Let's just reschedule. You look like you need some rest." She kissed him on the cheek and waved. He waved back and walked out.

"So, what were you talking about?"

April looked at her roommate and thought of Splinter's words. She simply answered with "Maybe another day. You have enough on your plate, I don't want to worry you."

"Well, can you at least tell me why you were fired?"

"He felt that I was no longer needed and was in his way."

Irma put her hands up "Wait. That just leaves me and my petsitting. That still isn't enough to rent this place. What are we gonna do?" April just responded with a shrug.

Donatello had gone home so he could figure out where the two other mutants came from. From what he had observed- since the pig bit his bo staff and he refused to touch the icky saliva -they were similar to his brothers and him. It appeared to have been an unnatural mutation, from what, he still doesn't have a clue. Whatever caused it, seemed to have worked the same, by bonding DNA. The only real difference was what it was, since these guys were a warthog and a rhinoceros, while the Turtles were, well, turtles.

Donnie leaned back in his chair. If only he could have stayed with the others to get more clues. For now, all he had was the dormant Mouser on his desk. Plus maybe he'll have to do some heavy cleaning to his staff.

First thing was first though. He grabbed the small robot and laid on his bed with his screwdriver. He knew this probably isn't the safest thing, but he only does it if he's bored. Besides, he was going to sit back up soon as he got a screw or two loose.

"Why is this light on?" There was a tiny red light inside its jaws. He pulled them open and received a small cut on his thumb from its metal jaws, followed by a faint shock. "Ouch. Son of a- huh?" He completely forgot about the pain when he saw a black lens far back in its 'throat'. Was this some sort of camera? Why was it there? Well, time to investigate.

Beebop and Rocksteady stole an ice cream truck. An ice cream truck that blasted an annoying pop song at that. Their orders were simple; Break into TCRI, grab cans of 'glowy stuff', and a giant frozen pink thingy in another tube.

An annoying pop song blasts through the speaker.

"Rocksteady, why can't we turn this thing off?" Beebop asked.

"'Cause, we busted it on accident and this is the jingle or whatever." Cleary Rocksteady was just as annoyed. They both found the song catchy, but it was playing for the last hour or so.

While Beebop and Rocksteady argued about the dumb song, the turtles had split up. Raphael wound up here, as well as Casey Jones, who decided to go back out instead of getting rest.

"These goons again?" They unknowingly said in unison as the duo got out of their van. They ran and fought.

Rocksteady picked up Raph and turned to Beebop "I'm keepin' these two out here, you go get what the boss man needs," Beebop busted down the door and walked in.

Rocksteady threw Raph at Casey. "Hey, it's you again," said Casey.

Raph just shot him a glare "Look, I dunno who you are, but this ain't the time."

So, they fought. When Bebop came out, he pushed them out of the way and shoved the stolen objects in the truck.

"C'mon, let's ditch these guys," Beebop yelled, since they preceded the fight after he pushed them aside. They got in the truck and drove off, leaving our heroes mad.

"Gah! They're getting away! Son of a-" Raph's sentence was cut short by Casey putting a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, I'm sure I'll encounter them and finish 'em for ya'. Besides, what are you even? That looks way too real to be a costume."

Raph took a deep breath and walked in between the building that was just robbed and the one next to it "Can you keep a secret?"

"I spend every night being a vigilante and my girlfriend is still clueless."

"I'll take that as a yes?"

"Yeah."

Raph paused for a second "I'm a mutant. Like, a lab accident kind of mutant."

Casey looked shocked at first, then a big grin spread across his face "That is... awesome!"

"Thanks?"

Casey noticed how dirty Raphael looked. "Umm, would you like to come over? I don't mind letting you eat and shower."

Raph closed his eyes for a moment "Nah. Though, if you like, we can meet up around here. You gotta bring pizza though."

Casey grabbed Raph's hand and shook it, "Deal, uh..."

"Raphael. Call me Raph."

"Nice. Casey Jones."

Raph realized that a canister of the green stuff fell out. "My bro will probably want to see this, no way it's some giant glow stick. Gotta cut this short, see ya' tomorrow!" he said as he ran off waving.

By the time Raph got home, the others were back too. They appeared to have gotten how long before, as they all had their gear off and their masks hanging around their necks.

"You're late, Raph," said Leo.

"I know, I know, but I ran into that mask guy again and we talked and I found this." He held up the ooze canister.

Donnie grabbed it from him, "This looks, interesting. I'll take a look."

In Baxter's lab, he had canisters of ooze, and more importantly, a frozen creature put in stasis being thawed out carefully with a lamp.

A man wearing spikey armor sat and watched. His voice boomed "I'm losing my patience, how long will this take?"

Just then, Baxter stepped away. The small, slimy pink thing got up the best it could and smirked.

"Krang is back!" It said.


	4. Chapter 4

**The decision**

Patrol was now a nightly thing, as was Raphael meeting up with Casey.

Raphael had been trying to get Leo to make them split up.

"Alright, Raph, why do you want to spread out so badly?"

Raph looked around. He knew Leo was on to him. They all kinda were. It was time to confess. "You want me to come clean? I've been meeting up with that one guy that was kind of kicking a-" he stopped halfway through the word and looked at Donnie and Mikey. Donnie was covering Mikey's ears- or whatever turtles have- and giving Raph a stern look.

Leo looked down a chuckled "I know, I heard you on the phone the other day. Just had to follow the clues. Seriously though, can't you reschedule? We need to be a _team_ every once and a while."

A grin spread across Raphael's face, "Can't we just, go meet him together?"

"If we do, do you promise to actually be a help?" While Raph loved beating punks up, he was also rather lazy if the others needed help.

Mikey began bouncing a little, with his eyes getting big enough that the moonlight almost made it look as if his eyes were full of stars. Fifteen years with no one but his family. Now he's made a friend. It made him happy. Now another person to hang out with? Things are going his way.

Meanwhile, Raphael had his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. It was a simple reason why - he was gonna get his way! Now he can see Casey whenever. There was still a small part of him disappointed that his brothers would be there, but hey, they were still cool.

Leo looked over at Mikey. Then he looked at Raph. Both looked happy, even if they had shown it in different ways. Even if his question wasn't answered, they were his little brothers. He caved in. He puts his hands up and said "Fine."

"Woo!" Mikey and Raph yelled in unison. They even fist pumped the same way.

Meanwhile, ninjas were watching them from afar.

The one in front was about sixteen or so. She wore grey jeans, a black hoodie with a skull on it, and her red-streaked bangs fell in her eyes. "Perfect. Bebop, Rocksteady, I found your guys." She got up and pointed at the mutants "Don't follow me!" Then, she walked off.

The turtles had been in between two buildings, hiding in the shadows, when they heard a girl shriek. It can from around the corner. Immediately, they all ran.

The girl came running too and bumped into Leo. Leonardo looked down and blushed. Her makeup was dark and heavy. Her hair had been dyed bright red at the tips, but there was notably longer streaks in her bangs. A beautiful lotus blossom was stuck in her hair as well. Her face looked innocent like she couldn't be accused of anything bad, despite her apparel.

"Tasukete, monsutā o tasukete!" She yelled and backed away.

They all looked at her curiously. While they recognized it as Japanese, they didn't really know what she was saying exactly.

Mikey looked at her and tilted his head. "Don't be scared. We're good."

Leo held out his hand and said "Ma'am, calm down. Can you please tell us what happened? Do you speak English?"

She spoke in Japanese again "Kowai hito wa watashi o kizutsukeru shite mite kudasai. Tasukete."

Raph snickered "I'll take that as a 'no'."

Leo looked at his brother and rolled his eyes. He looked at her, grabbed her hand ever so gently, and asked "What if we took you to our father? He knows Japanese."

She stared at him and said "Anata wa... Chichioya ga arimasu ka? Watashi wa anata ga shizen ka nanika no furīkuda to omotte imashita. Wa imasuga, watashi wa sore o shitai to omoimasu." She rolled her eyes a little during the first part, then put the innocent act back on for the giggle.

"Can you at least tell us your name?"

She raised an eyebrow and repeated what he said. "Hāmonī wa watashi no namaedesu. Mata, rōtasuburossamu watashi o yobidasu koto ga dekimasu.." was her official answer.

"Hāmonī? So, Harmony?"

She nodded at looked in his eyes. She blushed and smiled a little. Leo didn't know what to do. He tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear and smiled back.

Raph interrupted their moment by clearing his throat. He stood there tapping his foot with his arms crossed. "So, we meeting up with Casey or what?"

Well, they still had time, why not?

Casey stood outside his apartment. He stated at his phone. It was later than the usual meet up time. Like, a lot later. Now he knew how Irma felt all those times he was late. Should he go on his own? Should he go inside? Well, it wasn't too late.

Just when he was ready to leave, a green, three-fingered hand tapped his shoulder. He was startled at first, at least until he realized who it was. "Raph! I thought you ditched me." He said happily.

Raphael turned around and pointed at his brothers and their 'guest'. "Lookie who you get to meet."

Mikey bit his lip- or whatever mutant turtles have - trying not to look too excited. He swallowed it back and just waved. He really had to work on acting his age, and this was his start.

Harmony crossed her arms and looked down. Raph pointed to her and said "Don't worry about this chick. She's just tagging along because well, I dunno."

Casey looked at Raph and smirked, "Whatever the reason, she's hot."

Raph gently punched him in the arm "Dude, you already have a girlfriend!"

"I know, I know. She is hot though."

"Dude!"

"What? She is."

While the two bickered, Leo looked at the girl they saved. Okay, not really, but that's how he thought of it. You could say they got her away from the danger, at very least.

Harmony stepped a little closer to Leonardo and grabbed his hand. She looked at him and said "Korera no futari wa watashi o kowagara shite imasu." She looked and sounded scared, but aside from that, her words were a mystery. So, he just smiled and nodded.

Casey walked up to Mikey. He remembered the jumpscare Mikey gave him the last time they encountered. "Hey, so, why aren't you attacking me?" He asked.

Mikey looked at him with his big blue eyes in curiosity.

"When you got in my face. Your bro had to pull you away," he pointed at Don, "Why do you seem so calm now?"

Mikey blinked a few times and raised an eyebrow. (Or however you want to put that). "Huh? I wasn't trying to scare you, I was saying hi." He looked as innocent as possible when he said that.

Casey just decided to shut up. Just by his looks, Michelangelo had to have been a little more sheltered. Within the few minutes he's actually known all of them, he noticed that Donatello had hardly moved away from his little brother. He noticed that while the others- mostly Raph and Donnie, as Leo was a little more distant -had a few scrapes and bruises here and there, Mikey hardly had any. Mikey even had some baby fat left compared to the others. Casey leaned towards Mikey and whispered "Hey, how 'bout, next time Raph comes, maybe you can come too? Maybe get some time away from the others."

Michelangelo cocked his head to the side, looked at Donnie, then back at Casey "But, they like keeping me safe." he said.

"I know, I know, but, we can show you something fun. Wanna do some pranks? I know some good ones, I do it all the time to a classmate."

"But, they're bad. Don always says that it's a waste of resources, it's messy, and it's mean."

"Okay, so ya' don't wanna have fun?"

"Yeah, but-" Mikey stopped mid-sentence when Leonardo started calling for everyone as he ran into an alley. They had been by the apartments this whole time. Donnie grabbed Mikey's hand, pulled his brother away, and shot Casey a sharp glare.

Leo held on tight to the girl's hand. Tonight would be a night full of mystery, and figuring out who did what to this girl.

Patrol was a bust. Not even the Purple dragons were around, which was too bad because Casey wanted to show Michelangelo a thing or two. Despite this, Case still tried messing with the little guy. Donatello was not amused.

They said goodbye to Casey. Mikey did cave in and agree to some mischief for the next night.

So, what now? Leo had been working up the confidence to take Harmony to Splinter while they were out. It felt as if something- or someone -was following them.

Down the sewers, they went. Although, Harmony refused. At least, Leo thought she did.

"Sore wa eww, soko ni sō ni miemasu. Anata wa watashi ga sono naka o aruku shitaidesu ka?" She said from above the manhole.

Leo had his hand out to help her in. "Come on, it's safe. I promise."

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Just then, she looked over her shoulder and gasped. There was something up there, but Leo couldn't see it. Harmony climbed down the ladder and his behind Leonardo. She cursed in Japanese (thank goodness none of them understood it, especially Mikey) and put one hand on one of his swords as if she were to pull it out any minute.

"Okay, whoever's up there, come here and face me like a man!" Leo yelled.

He immediately regretted it. Bebop and Rocksteady squeezed through the manhole and landed with a thud.

"We don't want no trouble, we want Karai." Rocksteady said, pointing to the girl. She began shaking her head and let go of Leo's arm to signal them to stop.

"Watashi wa anata ga hanashite iru ka wakaranai, hitori de watashitachi o nokoshite kudasai." She said in a shaky voice.

"Yeah, what's the Shredder's daughter doing down here with these freaks?" Bebop asked.

"You idiots! I told you not to follow me!" The girl yelled. The turtles were all surprised to hear her speak English.

The right half of Leonardo's mask rose up like an eyebrow as he looked behind himself. "Wait, I thought your name was Harmony? A-and y-you couldn't speak English?"

Karai pulled one of Leo's katanas out of its sheath. "Look, I'm sorry, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

Leo was furious, and you could see it on his face clearly. She seemed like she liked him, but then he was thrown for a loop. How could he let this happen?

Raph pushed Mikey aside and ran at Karai. He stopped when he almost got stabbed in the throat. Karai had Leonardo's sword, and she wielded it well. A smirk spread across her face. She turned around, looked at Leo, and said "You know what? I might keep this."

Mikey and Donnie looked at each other, unsure if they should go after Karai or Bebop and Rocksteady. Luckily, they didn't have to fight, because Rocksteady grabbed Karai and carried her on his shoulder saying, "C'mon, we have to tell master Shredder what she's doin'."

Karai protested and began kicking and punching at him. While he did flinch a little, he held on to her as tight as possible.

Leonardo took a deep breath. "Let's go home, guys..." He said in a slightly angry tone.

Leonardo stood in Splinter's room, poking his fingers together. "Father, who is 'The Shredder'?"

Splinter's eyes opened wide. "Why do you ask?"

"Nothing, nothing. It's just, I met this girl, and I may have liked her...And she apparently worked for The Shredder."

Splinter put a hand on Leo's shoulder. "Stay home. No more patrol. We are at risk now." he said sternly.

Leo looked up at his father and asked, "Can you at least tell me why?"

"It's better that you do not know. The Shredder is a bad man, and I _do not_ want you or your brothers at risk."

"Hai sensei. I'll go tell the others." Leo said, then walked off.

Karai sat on the floor of a dark room. In front of her was a man in spiky armor- The Shredder.

"Hey, at least I found them. All we have to do if search the sewers." She said with a smirk.

Shredder shook his head. "You fail to understand this. They are in the way of our plans, and they must be stopped."

"Well, _your_ mutant idiots stopped me."

"You had hours to eliminate them, why did you wait?"

Karai shrugged. It was really a simple reason, she hardly knew what they did. She was merely honor bound to try. Also, she got a really cool sword out of playing the victim.

Shredder took off his helmet and gave her a look of disgust. "Twenty lashes to the back."

Two ninjas came out of a door on the left. Each grabbed one of Karai's arms and walked her through the door. Her screams could be heard throughout the building.

The small, slimy, pink brain thing, now in a small robot body stepped out from the shadows. "If you love her so much, why are you hurting her? If I had a daughter, I wouldn't even do such a thing."

Shredder looked at him and sighed. "Because, Krang, she needs to learn. Hopefully, this is the worse I'll have to do."


	5. Chapter 5

**The Gamble**

Michelangelo was sound asleep. He was cozy in his blankets, and his little teddy bear was in his arms. As he drifted into a deeper sleep, someone was sneaking around.

"Mike, wake up," Raphael said as he shook his little brother. Mikey just responded by hugging his bear tighter. "Mikey, wake up," Raph said again, more aggressive this time. Mikey just grunted and stuck his thumb in his mouth. He never did this for comfort, but more as a sign for anyone trying to wake him up to go away. Raphael began shaking Mikey hard and scream-whispered the words "Wake up!" several times. Mikey simply turned around and covered himself up more.

Raph finally had enough and jumped on his little brother's bed. Michelangelo almost screamed, but Raph's hand muffled it.

"Mikey, get up, we gotta meet up with Casey," Raph said quickly.

Mikey tried to talk but Raph's hand muffled his voice. Raphael uncovered his mouth and he immediately started whispering. "But, dad said we couldn't. Well, Leo did, but I still can't say no to master Splinter."

Raph rolled his eyes. "C'mon, imagine it, a night without Donnie hoverin' over ya' all the time."

Mikey tapped his chin, deep in thought. "Will you hold my hand?"

"No."

"Deal!" Mikey said as he jumped up. He reached under his mattress and pulled out his gear and bandana, then put them on. "I'm ready," he said with a big grin.

Mikey and Raph walked up to a fire escape. Casey stood upon it, looking down at them and smiling, pointing to a plastic bag. Raph motioned for Mikey to climb up there.

Soon as they got up there, Casey reached into his bag and said "Hun passes this fire escape every day, and we're gonna mess with him," as he handed them each a balloon full of water.

Mikey jiggled it a little and tilted his head. He looked at Casey and asked, "What do I do with this now?"

Casey opened his mouth, then Raph interrupted with a loud sigh. He slowly facepalmed with both hands. "Bro, really? You throw it. How do you not know what the shell to do with a water balloon? How do you not know what a water balloon is?"

Mikey gives a shrug.

Casey began shushing them and pointed down at Hun passing by. "Ready to the fun?"

Raph smirked and threw his instantly. He missed. Casey got Hun's foot. They all ducked and tried hiding in the shadows when he looked up, then he looked away and made them all get back up. Mikey looked at his balloon and threw it reluctantly. He got Hun in the back of the head. Something about that moment, and seeing a dude get angry at a supposedly unknown force made him happy.

He looked at Casey with a big smile and held out his hand, murmuring the word "Please", causing Raph to chuckle.

* * *

Donatello had fallen asleep at his desk. He probably would have slept through the night if it wasn't for the fact that there was an alarm on his phone, alerting him when it was finished downloading a program to figure out where the mouser came from. It had probably been the third one he tried, but so far it seemed impossible.

He turned off the alarm, opened his bedroom door, and walked to the kitchen to get some coffee. On his way back, he noticed that it was quiet. While the walls were thick, usually he would be able to hear Raphael snoring or blaring music because he couldn't sleep at this hour. He opened to door to find no red-clad turtle.

Donnie checked Michelangelo's room, to see if maybe Raph was just sneaking peeks at comics. When he looked, if anything, Mikey was gone too.

Unbelievable. And frightening. He knocked on Leonardo's door. There was some groaning followed by Leo's sleepy voice saying "Coming!"

Soon as Leo opened the door, he was pushed back in as Donnie whispered "They're gone. Raph and Mikey are gone."

Leo rubbed his eyes. "You sure?" he said groggily.

"Yes! They're not in their rooms or the kitchen, and you know they're too scared to wake dad. Why would they even need to wake him up?"

"Nightmares? Don, I think you've had too much coffee." Leo said jokingly. "They're fine."

Donnie took a deep breath and grabbed Leo's hand. "See for yourself."

"Donnie, I know you're tired, but please don't go cranky on me," Leo said within the few steps it took Donnie to drag him to Mikey's door.

He just rolled his eyes at Leo's comment, then opened the door.

Leonardo looked around. No Raph, no Mikey. Mikey was terrified to sneak out, so he couldn't have been far, right? Still, two of his little brothers were gone. Leo took a deep breath, let out a long sigh, then said "Alright, let's go. I'll get on my gear."

Shredder watched ninjas fight. They were training, then things got intense. Well, for them at least.

Shredder had Karai sitting right next to him. He motioned her towards the ninjas, then she nodded with a smirk and walked in the middle of them.

"Are you ready?" she asked the ninjas. They all looked at each other and nodded.

They began fighting. Karai took out a few ninjas, one slapped her. She gave them a sharp glare and went psycho on them.

Just then, Baxter Stockman entered. The biggest of smiles was on his face as he carried a robot.

Karai stopped and stood next to Shredder. "Stockman, what is this?" he asked.

Baxter gave a bigger grin and put the robot down. It looked like one of the ninjas in the room, only with bright red eyes. "Introducing, the Foot tech ninja!" He squeezed its shoulder and its eyes lit up. "They can do anything your ninjas can do. Maybe even better. Not to mention, no mess when they are...ahem, decommissioned."

Shredder rested his head in his hand. "And?"

"Well, we could maybe send them out for a test?" Soon as he said that, the robot walked over to a ninja and twisted their arm.

Shredder sighed. "Okay, if the Foot ninjas fail their next mission, you can use your toy."

Baxter grinned. "You won't regret this!" Shredder took off his helmet and lightly facepalmed.

Karai giggled a little. "By the way, what's with that pink thing. He's always with _you_. There has to be a good reason."

Baxter frowned. "He's getting something from Dimension X. There have been some...umm, complications. The portal won't close."

"It can't be that bad. What's he even getting anyway? More weak things like him? If everything from where he's from is so tiny, I bet your precious lab is safe." Karai began laughing and making motions with her hands as if she was squishing Krang.

"He's getting stone soldiers, and if you were to go in there, you'd see the chaos that this has caused! You're lucky that you have your daddy to keep you out of the lab, otherwise, I'd-"

"Enough!" Shredder stood up. "Stockman, leave. Karai, I believe we have some work to do."

Mikey had used up the rest of the water balloons. He probably wet most of the sidewalk, just randomly throwing balloons. At one point, he almost hit a blonde girl wearing lots and lots of blue. He could've sworn that she looked up and winked at him, but Raph and Casey denied it.

"See, what'd we tell ya'?" Casey said, patting Mikey on the head soon as they finished climbing down the fire escape.

Mikey giggled, then got serious. "So, what if Leo and Donnie catch us? What if _Splinter_ catches us? What will we do?"

Raph snickered, then said, "Don't worry lil' bro, they're all asleep."

"I don't think so."

Everyone looked around, then Leonardo jumped out of nowhere.

Donatello jumped down soon after and hugged Mikey. He started rambling about dangers and getting grounded and Splinter getting freaking mad if he knew, but Michelangelo tuned him out.

Leo, Raph, and Casey all stared at them and shared looks of surprise.

"Anyways," Leo began, "what the shell were you thinking?!"

Raph crossed his arms. "I was thinking that someone had to keep this city safe. Casey's just one guy. How'd you even find us anyway?"

"Donnie tracked you two with your phones. Still, why did you sneak out? Why did you bring Mikey? Why did you even go against Splinter's wishes at all? Are you _trying_ to get killed?"

Raph growled a little. "Shut up. Just. Shut. Up. So, ya' really want people to get hurt with no justice, Mister Hero? I got news for you, you can't do that by being a good boy and listening to dad all the time."

Donnie pulled Mikey back a bit. He opened his mouth the smallest bit to say "Casey, get back. It's gonna hit the fan."

Leo pulled out his swords, getting ready to defend himself. "Raph, please don't." Raphael just growled a little more. "Look, sorry to break it to you, but there's still only the five of us to go through the whole city. And who or whatever 'The Shredder' is has Master Splinter spooked. It's for _our_ safety. There's cops all over, we're good."

He gave Leo a twisted smile and spoke through his teeth, "Y'know, you're right. Even though the cops haven't helped with much, you're right!" He throws his fist at Leo.

Casey wanted to make a run for it when he looked at Raph's knuckles. Bloodied, as Leo had moved away, leaving him, to hit a brick wall.

Raph turns to look at Casey. "What? You scared of us _now_?"

Casey began chuckling nervously and slid his back down the wall of a building to the ground. "Yeah, no, I can't believe you really are a bunch of mutants. It's just now dawning on me."

Leo looks at the spot on the wall with dismay. "That's enough Raph. You even have Casey spooked."

"Yeah, well-" Whatever Raphael was going to say was cut off by a bunch of ninjas dropping by to say hi.

Then Karai walked in the middle of them. She looked at Leo and cackled, "Dawww, freak still doesn't have a new sword?"

Leonardo ran a finger across the scratch, which was already beginning to scab over. "So? You're the one who tricked me. Joke's on you for being so awful. How about you? What have you done with the katana you stole from me? You heartless- " Leo's banter was interrupted by Raph cornering Karai and slamming her against a wall, holding a sai to her throat.

"Raph!" Everyone yelled in unison. Raphael seemed to be taking his anger out on her instead of talking it out with Leo. This was going to be a weird battle- mostly because they had to make sure he _held back_. Karai began shaking a little, then pushed him off. He spun around and began taking out ninjas instead.

Karai stood staring in awe. She tried opening her mouth to say something, but Leo just said "He's ticked off, I wouldn't recommend even helping them, it'll probably just make things worse. Just wait for it to sink in..."

Another ninja went down. "...Wait for it..."

Raphael stopped and looked at all the knocked out ninjas. "What am I even doing?" he asks as he drops a ninja. "I'm no better than them, huh?"

"What'd I tell you?" Leo said, although it was mostly directed at Casey and Karai.

There were only half as many ninjas left, all of which were scared to take another step. Before they even had a chance to fight, a bunch of mousers came.

Michelangelo escaped Donnie's grasp to try and smash the robots, causing Donatello to yell "Hey!", but Mikey just responded with a raspberry.

He was greeted with bright lights instead and began screaming. The mousers were shining lights at the ninjas, but, why? They were sabotaging themselves.

Mikey gave Karai a raised eyebrow- erm, mask look. She looked at the chaos and said "I think I know what's going on. But first, sayōnara. I need to make sure."

She threw a smoke bomb and was gone in an instant. Meanwhile, the mousers were so busy sabotaging the ninjas, that the turtles and Casey could get away. They snuck past and made a run for it.

They stuck to the shadows, which freaked Casey out. There was something uneasy about the shadows this time around. After all that happened.

When they reached a manhole close to the Turtles' area in the sewers, it was about 1:00 AM, and Raph had apologized a million times.

"Geez, are there any more freaky things about you guys that I should know?" Casey asked as he observed how well the turtles navigated in the dark.

"Not that I can think of," Mikey said with a smile.

They were heading to the lair and taking Casey along.

When they got home, Splinter was sitting on the couch, staring at the entrance.

"Aww shiz," Raph murmured.

"Boys, please explain why you went out, and why there is a stranger here."

Leonardo raised his hand, "Umm, Casey Jones, this is Master Splinter. Father, this is Casey Jones."

"And?" Splinter asked, still looking for an explanation.

Raphael began mumbling something, causing everybody to turn to him. "I said, it's my fault. I dragged Mikey out, then Leo and Don came lookin' for me and I overreacted."

"Leonardo?"

Leo hung his head. "Yes, it's true, father."

Splinter looked at Casey. "Mister Jones, may we please have some privacy?"

"Sure," Casey said, backing out of the entrance, looking curiously at the doorway of sorts before saying, "See ya'!"

"Boys, please stay in. There is evil out there, and I _don't_ need you to be its victim, nor do I want you to drag others into this." He put a hand on Raph's shoulder. "Please."

They all nodded. "You may go. It is late."

All four turtles walk off, looking somewhat nervous.

Karai knocked on the door of Baxter Stockman's lab and rolled her eyes. What a dumb rule to not let her in there.

Karai tapped her fingernails on the wall, angry. Well, after what she saw tonight, maybe not that angry, but still. When he came out he had a large grin. "Yes?"

Karai pulled him down by the collar of his shirt, and said, "I know what you did tonight."

"Whatever do you mean?"

She let go and pushed him. "The mousers. You sabotaged the Foot soldiers, didn't you?"

He grinned even more. "So what if I did? Who will Shredder believe, the scientist, or the nutty teenager?"

Karai had a different opinion. Who would he believe, the crook, or his daughter? But she held it in. "Fine. You'll regret this. I know it."

He walked back into his lab and said "I think not," before shutting the door.

Inside the lab there were things jumping out of a portal, only to get sucked back in. Krang was at a computer working like crazy to try and close the portal.

Across the room, there was a small assembly line making robots. Foot tech ninja after Foot tech ninja.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Justice**

April walked into the school building. People chattered. From what she could make out, someone was robbed. How was this new? This had been happening for months, and their stuff would usually get returned by the next day. It'll be a little worn down, but still back with them.

Well, this time was different. The previous night she was sitting at home with Irma, settling down after a day out. Irma kept checking social media while April shopped after school, then when they got home…

 _The previous night..._

"April, did you hear the news?" Irma said when they got home, putting her cell phone in her pocket.

"Yeah, someone was robbed, I know. It happens every day." She threw her backpack on the couch and began getting snacks.

Irma grabbed the remote, kicked off her shoes, and put her feet up on the coffee table. "Well, yeah, but there may be proof this time!"

"Really?" April asked with a smirk as she poured out some popcorn.

"Yuh-huh. You've heard of 'The Shredder', right? Supposedly he's been seen near the college." She grabbed April's backpack and put it on the floor so her bestie may sit.

April curled up on the couch and began tossing popcorn into her mouth. "Yeah, but are you sure it's not just gossip? I mean, I know there's cameras, but unless anybody has actually bothered to look, _and_ give that evidence, how do you know?" She stated between bites.

Irma crossed her arms and made a pouty face. "Buzzkill."

Now April stood staring at scratches on the walls and dents in the lockers. People were gathered around a girl with brown hair, sobbing about a lost wallet. A boy with his hair dyed neon colors hugged her and began motioning for everyone to leave them alone.

April snuck by and ran to her locker. It wasn't far, and someone in the crowd noticed her.

Casey saw her and began following her. As the halls were filling up again, he got lost in the crowd a bit. After so much pushing and shoving, he made it to April.

April had her head and right arm inside her locker. "Leo...look, I know what I see, what everyone here sees! Yeah, I know. Exactly, you don't know anything about the Shredder aside from his name. But c'mon, I-" Casey tapped her shoulder. "I have to call you back." She snapped the shell-shaped phone shut.

She turned around and sighed. "Yes, Casey?" The odd looking phone was still in her hand.

Casey pointed at it. "Is that a turtle shell shaped cell phone?"

April tucked it behind her back and got quiet.

Casey reached into his pocket. "Some turtle dudes saved me a while back. Real nice guys."

April's eyes got wide.

"They gave me one just like that," he said, pointing at his shell-phone.

The turtles sat down in front of the TV, watching the news.

"The infamous 'Shredder' has struck again, this time attacking a local college," said the lady on the television.

Mikey was hanging off the couch upside down and groaned. "Duuudes, why are we watching the news? I wanna watch something fun. Ooh, maybe, superheroes? Anime!"

Leo was on the floor, protecting the remote from his little brother's grasp. "Because April called about this. Let's watch, maybe we'll find something out."

Mikey twirled himself around on his shell and was now sitting with his legs crossed. "But Leooo. Brooo. What if this is a different Shredder? The one we've heard of has ninjas and robots, and a chick that makes you blush!"

"How many people do you think are in the world that call themselves 'The Shredder'?" Raph asked, sitting on the other side of the couch.

Splinter crossed his arms. He was there the whole time, but no one realized it until he said "No. You four are not going."

They all jumped and looked behind them. There he was, plain as day. He wore a stern look on his face. He walked towards them and leaned on the couch. He looked at them each, and could easily see how they were all confused, curious, and slightly scared. "I said no. There are just some things that you are not ready for."

Leo nodded, then glanced over at his brothers. Raph opened his mouth, then paused and closed his mouth again, knowing he'd probably lose if he protested. Donnie nodded with a big smile, hiding his phone behind his back. Then there was Mikey. His eyes got big, and he got on his knees, with his elbows on the back of the couch.

Mikey began playing innocent. "Please? There's bad guys out there, hurting people! Raph wants to go out and keep the city safe! Don's been downloading new apps to figure out who the big bad is! Please? Pretty please? I like it up there. We have friends. Leo wants to be a hero." Donnie facepalmed in the background.

"Actually, I'm fine with staying if going on patrol makes master upset." Leo said smiling, with an invisible halo practically floating above his head.

Splinter walked towards the youngest and grabbed his not-so-little hands. "Michelangelo..." for a moment there was peace in Splinter's eyes, then sternness, "... I said no and that's final." He said something in Japanese. While they never knew the exact translation, they knew what it meant. To listen. To do what they're told.

Splinter walked back to the hallway and gave them one last look before going to his room. He smiled, being reassured of his sons' safety. For now at least.

Raph and Mikey got on the floor. All four of them sat in a tight circle, and both Leo and Raph wore smirks on their faces.

"You thinking what I'm thinking, Raph?" Leo asked.

"Sneak out?" Raph said. And just like that, the little phrase Splinter used lost its meaning.

Leo put a finger to his mouth and made a shushing noise. "Yup." He said, grinning devilishly.

"'Bout time. What made ya' change your mind?" Raph asked.

Leonardo's expression had gone from mischief to seriousness in an instant. "Because, whatever's going on has sensei spooked, and I wanna see why. Besides, remember the bank robberies? It also affects April, and who knows how many more people. We have to put a stop to this!"

"In other news, it looks like the Space heroes movie is being released early." The woman on the television said. Leo immediately turned his attention to the television and grinned. He suddenly looked so much more child-like, as he squealed in delight.

Karai was laying in her bed, admiring the katana she stole from Leonardo. It looked surprisingly well made. The handle felt strong, the blade looked sharp. The handle had been wrapped in shredded blue cloth. While it was an admittedly pretty color, it wasn't exactly her taste.

"Is the Shredder a real thing, or just simply the result of all the crime in New York? Stay tuned to look at the evidence!" Said a random woman. Karai blinked and looked at the screen on the opposite side of the room.

"No way..." she said, sitting up a little straighter.

She got up, and sped walked to her father's room. The large 'throne' was more for when people would come with questions, almost like a conference actually. Well, that's what she thought it was anyway. She never really did understand why he does this. Why he puts up with Baxter Stockman to get rich. At least, that's what she thinks the point was. And why create freaks? What was their purpose? And the little pink brain, what was his deal? What the heck was she doing then? What was the point of training her to be a ninja? In the modern time, well, what's the use for ninjas! This was all making her head spin a little now, actually.

She stopped pondering this and knocked on her father's door. When it opened, instead of bowing like she normally did, she walked right up to Shredder. "Father, I have some dire news."

"Okay, here's what we're doing. We're splitting up into groups of two, however, we will still have to say close enough that we can help each other quick. This is a bad neighborhood." Leonardo instructed.

The turtles, April, and Casey were standing in front of a line of broken down looking apartments. The stairs were covered in cracks, as if stepping on it will send everything tumbling. Rats roamed free, causing Casey to jump a few times.

They were trying to catch The Shredder. Seemed like he would hit up more common places. This place certainly seemed predictable enough. With bullet holes in the walls and a very bad track record when it came to safety, why hadn't he already tried this place?

Casey watched as April and Donnie tapped away at their phones. "So, you two are positive that this'll work?"

April looked up and nodded. "Yep. Looking at the some news articles, he seems to hit up pretty obvious places, and this seems like his next stop, because looking at it, there is a pattern. It's like he's working his way through the city, going to places that are relatively close to each other."

"Umm, we have to be careful though. Sometimes there are corpses at the scenes, often with slash marks in their shirts. This is seem as his symbol." Donnie said, with his eyes growing wide. He started covering his mouth after tapping his phone a bit more and made a slight whimpering noise. "Okay, how about we stay together or just go home altogether? I'm reading up on this and I'm scared now."

Leo shook his head. "No, we're not going home. We have to do this. If people are getting killed, we need to be heroes! We need to be This city's saviors! We need to be-"

"Fightin' crime." Raph interrupted, rolling his eyes. He grabbed Donnie's arm and said "C'mon dork," pulling his younger brother away to search.

Donnie pulled his arm away and began praying to every god he knew of- even if he didn't believe in them -in the hopes to make it through the night in tact.

Casey grinned and looked at April. "You comin' with me Red? A little bondin'?"

She looked over her options. While she would have preferred to go with Leonardo or Michelangelo, she needed to bond with Casey. They didn't like each other much, which already made it awkward when he came over, now the turtles were going to get them together even more? She held out her hand and said, "Fine."

Casey smiled and grabbed her hand, as they walked off in a separate direction than Raphael and Donatello.

"C'mon bro, you ready?" Leo asked Mikey. Mikey nodded, and they walked off into the shadows.

However, not too far away, the Foot lurked.

Karai ran, staying close to buildings and dark areas, holding up a hand to signal the new Tech ninjas to stop, and looking around.

The robots wouldn't pick up her signal half the time, and proceeded to wonder about. High tech her butt. Then again, it could have also been Bebop and Rocksteady, who accidentally knocked down and hit some of them. Clumsy idiots.

"That's it, if you can't stay quiet and not wreck the Foot Tech ninjas, I will send you two back to headquarters and make you explain your 'accidents' to Baxter Stockman! Am I clear?" Karai whispered.

Bebop looked down at her, then nudged Rocksteady, giggling. "I kinda like her better when she's serious then when she's tellin' us mean jokes and cacklin' like a witch, don't you agree Rock?"

Rocksteady looked down at Karai. "Yeah, that witch laugh is annoying. Hey, 'Rai, why do ya' do that stuff anyways? Don'cha know we gots feelings?" he said, pretending to sniffle.

Her face turned bright red. "Maybe it's because I put up with you two all day! I don't know who chose you, but you two are horrible ninjas-"

"Actually, Shredder just calls us muscle. No ninja trainin' for us." Bebop interrupted.

Rocksteady leaner in towards Bebops ear and whispered "Hey, at least she bein' honest."

"At least Shredder doesn't see me like he sees you. You two are incompetent idiots. You can pack a punch, but overall what's the point when you have rubble for brains! I'm expected to be tough, so I do it." Karai crossed her arms and leaned against a wall. "Let's just shut up. We have a mission."

Bebop and Rocksteady side-hugged each other. Rocksteady looked down at Karai, and smiled a little. "We can go, if you want." He said. "We'll carry all the busted 'bots."

Karai smiled and tapped her chin. "Well, you could, and I would be so happy, but do you even know your way back?"

Bebop snorted, then said "Well, we can drive."

She placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "How many people did you hurt?" She asked, looking down.

"None...one...five." Bebop and Rocksteady said in unison.

The rubbed her forehead, then tried to stand as straight as possible. "Okay, how about I leave you here, and when I find the Shredder I will come and get you." She peeked around a corner, then turned around and whispered "Just stay here, and stay quiet. If you can do this, then I'll cut back on the insults just a little. Maybe."

The gruesome twosome nodded and Karai smiled and gave a thumbs up, before disappearing into the darkness.

April followed Casey. He asked if she wanted to hold his hand, but she declined.

"I'm twenty, I can handle myself." April whispered, sounding insulted.

Casey chuckled. "How much trainin' ya' got there Red?" He put a foot on a fire escape at pulled himself up.

She climbed on after him. "Do I really need a bunch of fancy training? I know how to hit and I have pepper spray. I'm fine."

"It helps." He got to the top of the building and smiled.

She raised an eyebrow, looking rather unamused. "What?"

He sat on the edge of the building and motioned for her to sit next to him. She walked over and sat down, asking "I still don't see it. What am I looking at?"

He chuckled and held her close. "It's art. See all the graffiti? It may be illegal, but some of it is beautiful." He started pointing to some rather impressive stuff- like a giant gorilla wearing a graduation cap and two dolphins making a heart.

April scooted away from Casey. "While it is cool, I still don't get the point of this." She said.

He started rubbing the back of his neck. "Nothin', it's just pretty and I kinda want to do somethin' for Irma...on a canvas of course...I learned my lesson about graffiti in high school." He said, with his cheeks turning red. "You're her best friend, right?"

"Right."

"So uhh, any advice? What does she-" Casey got interrupted by something moving below, causing them both to jump.

April got up and started climbing down. "We'll talk about this later, c'mon!"

Donnie stayed on edge as he and Raph walked throughout the neighborhood. This was insane. Tracking down where a killing machine came from? Sure. Fighting some ninjas following Karai? Easy. Beating a bunch of thugs? No problem! But running _towards_ a guy known for killing people? This could end messily.

"Don. Donnie. Don-o. Hello?" Raph was looking for any kind of response from Donnie since he seemed to be lost in thought. "D, bro. Dorkatello." Okay, actually he was ignoring that last name Raph called him.

Donatello looked down and sighed. "What?"

Raph shrugged. "Nothin', nothin'. You just seemed out of it."

"Of course I am. I don't want to fight some homicidal loon!" He said, throwing his hands in the air.

"Neither do I, but it's the right thing to do. Look, I get it, you and Mike are like a B team. You spend more time in with computers than you do trainin', then up until recently, we been cooped up underground, unaware of the outside world. That's why you're with me, because if it was you two, you'd probably wind up dyin'." Raph said, making hand motions all over the place for emphasis.

Donnie didn't respond. Raph waved his hand in front of his face, which he grabbed.

"Don, what tha shell-" Raph started, his mask arched as if it was his eyebrows. He trailed off after Donatello pointed some graffiti that had some of its paint scraped off...or rather slashed off. It went so deep that even the wall had a slight indentation from it.

They looked at each, then the graffiti. "The Shredder," they said in unison.

Raph heard a scraping noise. He peered around a corner to see a shadowy figure using something to scratch the walls. A chill ran up his spine. He turned around and whispered, "I found him."

Donnie nodded. He pulled out his staff and held on tight, trying to go as fast as possible, going around the right corner.

Leo walked tall with Mikey trailing behind him. On a larger scale mission like this, Leo didn't have much of a game plan. Uhh, find the guy? Beat 'em up? Stop crime?

Meanwhile Mikey knew his big brother had a plan. At least he thought so. This was fun to him either way though. No over protection, no getting dragged into crazy stuff. Just fun. Looking around at the bullet holes and paint and broken stuff. Not because it was there, but because it isn't happening now. Because it actually seemed peaceful at that moment.

Then it ran past them. The mystery man that's been all over the news. The Shredder. Then four others ran after him. Green eyes. Red eyes. A metal bat gleaming. Raph. Donnie. Casey. April was probably the fourth one then.

Leo looked back at Mikey, then grabbed his hand and ran, pulling his younger brother behind.

Karai watched from the top of a building, waiting for the perfect moment to go and corner him. Just wait for it…

She jumped in front of him and smirked. He looked behind himself, then sighed and whispered "You."

Karai was thrown off guard. Her? What about her? How would he know her?

She drew her sword, only for this battle to get bombarded by the turtles, the kid from the last time Karai saw them, and a red haired girl.

The Shredder dodged all the attacks, and before long there was a brawl in front of him.

"I had him!" Yelled Karai.

"Sorry, but I didn't know what you were doing!" Grunted Leo.

"Then next time keep your nose out of my business!" She yelled back.

With all the yelling going on, they had gotten so distracted. Mikey started asking for everyone to stop, then he felt someone pick him up from the back of his belt, and before he knew it he was in a dumpster.

Leo stopped when he heard Mikey fall, then looked at Shredder. He pushed Karai aside and slowly walked towards Shredder. "You don't mess with my family," he said, before charging at him.

The Shredder dodged and started running off again. Karai started running after him. "Raph, Casey, Donnie, come on, we'll continue patrol. April, can you please check up on Mikey?" Leo said, and before April knew it they were gone.

April climbed a little so she could see into the dumpster. "Mikey? Are you okay?"

A big green hand grabbed hers, as Michelangelo stood up. He rubbed his head a little before saying, "I dunno, I think I hit my head so hard that I'm hallucinating superheroes."

A shadow cast over them as April turned around.

There were three people practically floating in mid-air. The middle one was a guy and said, "Hello, we're the Justice Force."


	7. Chapter 7

The Injustice

The turtles, Casey, and Karai ran. A goal in mind. To catch the Shredder. But finally, he got away. Again.

They stopped near a building and started taking deep breaths. Leo wiped some sweat away from his forehead.

Karai giggled a little, saying "I didn't know that turtles could sweat," with a smirk.

Leo shot her an unamused look. "Look, can you please explain what the shell is going on. Why were you fighting your father?"

"He's not my father." Karai crossed her arms and looked away. "He's an imposter. I don't know who he is, or why he's doing this, but he's definitely caused some trouble under the name 'Shredder'."

"Wait. So you mean the guy we've been looking for isn't really..." Raph trailed off.

"What?" Karai asks.

Leo looked around. "Nothing, it's just, my father says that your father is dangerous. I guess they have a little bit of a history."

She shrugged, then leaned against a wall for a few seconds. Her eyebrows shot up when she got an idea. "You know... we could work together on this."

Everyone said "huh" in unison.

"Look, no jokes, no names, and..." she looked at Leo's belt. One sheath was still empty. "I'll give you something. A reward."

"Like what?" Leo asked.

Karai put a finger to her lips. "Just tell me, yes or no."

Raph stepped forward. "Leo, you seriously can't be thinking about doing this. She's a wicked witch! She stole from us! She sent a bunch of ninjas after us!"

Casey stepped in too. "Yeah. Look, I only saw this Karai that one night, but I can see that she's bad news!"

"But she could help. We're after the same thing, and she could help us piece together our origin. Plus, think about the people it could save..." Leo closed his eyes for a moment and held out his hand towards Karai. "It's a deal."

Karai grabbed his hand and shook it. You won't regret this."

Leo nodded, then pulled out his phone and started dialing April's number. "Now to see how April and Mikey are doing..."

April's shell-phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and answered. "Yeah?"

Leo paused on the other end. "Are you two okay? Did you get Mikey home?"

April bit her lip and said, "There was kind of a change of plans..."

Mikey could be heard squealing in the background. They were with none other than the Justice force, in the Justice force headquarters. In the lab specifically.

Guns and armor and various tech was on the walls, awaiting someone to choose them for battle.

Leo sighed. "What happened?"

April pushed some hair out of her face. "I better not say now. We're in good hands though, I'll tell you that."

Mikey got behind April a squealed "We're with the Justice force!"

April covered her free ear. "Yeah...what he said."

"You gotta be kidding me. They're fictional characters."

"Leo, I'm not kidding. They're real!" April said, trying to convince Leonardo. Someone came in. April started closing her phone a little and said "Look, I'll talk latter, gotta go."

It was the guy who first spoke to them, Silver Sentry. He came in holding a paper and a pen. He sat down at a desk. "Alright, Michelangelo, please step up there."

Mikey stepped on a little platform in front of the desk. "What's this for?"

"As the leader of the Justice force, I have to ensure that you have what it takes to be one of the greatest heroes in the world. So I'll be writing down your stats, approve them, and hand them over to Harold so he can customize your gear to suit your needs. That platform is measuring your weight and height." Silver Sentry said.

Mikey's eyes lit up. "W-w-what?" He smiled so big. His legs got a little wobbly.

"You do want to be a superhero, right?"

Mikey nodded. "Yes!" He stomped on the platform. "By the way, how's this measuring me? Is it some super high tech piece of equipment that senses whoever's on it?"

"No, it's a scale with a ruler attached."

Mikey looked behind him and sure enough, there was a ruler. "Huh."

Silver Sentry looked down at the sheet of paper and picked up the pen. "Anyways, name?"

"Hamato Michelangelo. I think. Hmmm. We were technically born in America, so I guess Michelangelo Hamato? Uhh..." Mikey answered, trying to wrap his head around this odd thought.

Sentry looked up at him. "Michelangelo Hamato it is. Age?"

"Fifteen. Ish." He said, unsure how exactly to respond.

"Okay, fifteen. Any powers?"

Mike shrugged. "I'm a mutant. Can kinda heal fast."

He took a moment to write it down. "What hero name do you want to use?"

The little orange-clad turtle grinned. "The Turtle Titan. Or Turtle man, but that just sounds so cliche and generic."

Sentry nodded. "Last question. What's your origin?"

"I'm a giant turtle." Mikey said with a dead stare.

"That's it?"

"That's it, bro."

Silver Sentry clapped his hands together and got up. "Okay, that wraps up that!" He walked off holding the paper.

"Wait!" Mikey yelled.

Silver Sentry paused and turned to him. "Yeah?"

Mikey tapped his fingers together. "Will I pass?"

Sentry smiled. "I'm the one who approves it. You've already passed." He walked into another room and made some shuffling noises.

Mikey hugged April with the world's biggest smile. He looked up to her and squealed. His eyes glimmered like a thousand stars. "I'm a superhero! I passed! I passed!" April patted his head and giggled.

Silver Sentry came back with a nicely folded piece of red fabric. "Alright, Turtle Titan, step forward."

Michelangelo let go of April and ran. He stood up straight and took a deep breath. His heart was racing. This had to be the coolest thing to ever happen to him.

Silver Sentry unfolded the fabric- it was a cape. It was simple, just solid red with a J and F in the middle, rounded out to make a circle. He stepped forward and put it over Mikey's shoulders, proceeding to tie it into a floppy looking bow.

"Do you, Michelangelo Hamato, take the name of Turtle titan, as well as the title of a superhero?"

Mikey bowed. "Yes, yes I do."

Silver Sentry put his hands on Mikey's shoulders. "Do you also promise to never ever reveal your secret identity?"

Mikey nodded. "Of course! My entire existence is mostly a secret anyway, plus that's like the number one rule of being a superhero!"

Silver Sentry blushed and chuckled a little. "Yeah, Chrysalis wrote that little welcoming speech. Anyways, I welcome you to the Justice force!"

Mikey jumped up and down with a smile.

Sentry turned to April. "You sure you don't wanna fill out an application?"

April shook her head. "I doubt I'm cut out for it."

He shrugged and said "Okay. You don't need superpowers to meet the qualifications, just so you know."

Two girls walked in. One had brown hair and a helmet, and the other had red hair and big wings with the colors of the rainbow on them.

The one with the helmet crossed her arms. "Are we ready to catch that one maniac who's been running around? Crissy has school tomorrow."

The one with the wings (Crysalis- or Crissy as she was just called) yawned and said "Whatever Ananda, I'm fine. I've been up later. I really just want to catch whoever this is. Crime is whatever, it's everywhere, and we try to stop it, but you know what's really bad? When somebody keeps doing it, and it's murder! Not to mention that his slashes are like his calling card!"

Ananda leaned towards Mikey while Crysalis rambled on about crime. "She'a pretty good with words, expect a few speeches like this...she also likes to talk, so expect some rants like this too."

April was sitting at the desk that Silver Sentry was previously sitting at. She had her cheek squished up against the desk, looking half asleep. "Yeah, can we go? I have school too."

Silver Sentry stood in the middle of the room and looked at everybody. "Yeah, okay, let's go!"

Leo and Karai walked next to each other. Karai looked back every once and a while. There was an awkward silence. Leo thought about what April said.

Karai broke the silence by saying "So Raph, the last time we met...what was that? Anger issues much?"

Raph just responded with "I don't like you. Please, just Raphael. You ain't my friend, even with this truce."

Karai looked oddly surprised.

Donnie was all the way in the back and asked "How do you keep finding us? Why are you looking for us?"

Karai looked down and sighed. "Well, a long time ago, my father had a rivalry with a man named Hamato Yoshi. He thought he killed him, but he felt he was still alive. Here we are fifteen years later, I guess destiny told him it was time."

She took a deep breath and looked away from everyone. "I'm not sure though. It all sounds stupid and crazy. All evidence points to you, but..." she paused. It all fit together, but there were still so many missing pieces that it didn't quite complete the picture. "Dunno, my mom took care of me for a while. Maybe it's because I wasn't there to witness it all with the lab, but then again, I'm talking to a bunch of giant turtles. Some things like who father hires have been making me question everything though. But he's my dad, honor and respect, all that. You don't just disobey like that."

Raph just raised an eyebrow, wondering how she'd know all that.

Donnie looked at her. "It all makes sense now! Karai, Hamato Yoshi is our dad, and he doesn't like Shredder because of that."

Leo grabbed Karai's hand. "And you don't always have to listen. We shouldn't be out tonight, but we are for the sake of heroism and discovery. Because if he is doing the wrong thing, why should you just because of blood?"

Then she remembered something; Bebop and Rocksteady! "You're right. With that being said, I gotta go, this could help do some good." She ran off.

Raph shot Leo an angry glare. "'Just give her a chance, she can do the right thing, she can help!' Well Mister Second chance, look at where we are now! She ditched us!"

Casey spoke for the first time in what seemed like forever. "Hey, she could be bein' honest. She doesn't seem that bad."

Raph just rolled his eyes. Everything she said. It was everything about being honor bound that really made her seem untrustworthy. They may have a truce, they may be looking for the same thing with the same goal in mind, but they're still enemies. Was he the only one who saw that?

Leo gave Raph a pet on the shell. "Look, I don't completely trust her either, but more hangs in the balance than some petty rivalry, there are lives at stake here."

Raph nodded. "I know you're right, I'm just saying that maybe you're being too tru-"

Click click click. Everyone got distracted by a tapping sound that was getting progressively louder.

Donnie tapped at his phone, seemingly getting faster with each second. Everyone just stared in curiosity. Casey faked a small cough to get his attention. Donnie looked up, not even bothering to move his head. "Yeah?"

"What'cha doin'?" Asked Casey.

Donnie tucked the device into a pocket in his belt. "I put a tracker on him. He's close. I'd suggest trying to make it sound like a crime scene here." A wicked grin spread across his face, which was an unfamiliar enough sight that actually sent a small chill up his brothers' spines.

Leo tilted his head. "What if someone else comes to 'save' us?"

Raph snickered. "It's New York, no one's tried to break up a fight for us before."

Mikey giggled as he ran around with the little piece of fabric trailing behind him.

Chrysalis was carrying April, who had insisted on walking but ultimately found herself wrapped in the girl's arms.

Mikey stopped and looked down from a building. In the small space between it and another building he could see his family. They appeared to be yelling at each other...And giggling a little? And Casey was hitting stuff with his bat? Weird.

"Check it out, it's my bros!" Mikey yelled.

Ananda sat down next to him, dumbfounded. "Is the guy with the bat attacking them orrr?..."

He shrugged. "I'm a little confused by that too. He's a really good friend of ours, so I don't know what he's doing."

Down below, Leo looked around. "Yeah, he's not coming. We're just screaming like idiots."

Mikey dropped down and ran to his brothers, giving them each a hug.

"Mike? I thought April took you home?" Leo said, sounding a little surprised.

Mikey shook his head. "Nope. There were some complications..."

"Where's April then?" Leo asked.

"Please don't tell me she's in trouble." Donnie said, shaking his head a little.

Mikey sighed. "No. Why would you think that? She's up there!" He said, pointing up.

A puzzled look washed over Raph's face. "Huh?"

Casey grabbed Raph's shoulder. He was looking in a amazement at something. "This isn't nonsense, Mike's tellin' the truth."

Everyone looked to where Casey was pointing. There she was, waving with a nervous smile, trying not to move too much so Chrysalis wouldn't drop her.

"Wait, you two weren't kidding?" Leo said.

Silver Sentry landed near Mikey, followed by Ananda, and Chrysalis putting April down.

Silver Sentry nodded. "Yes, we're real. And we saw The Shredder, the guy you're looking for?"

Leo quickly scanned the area and asked "Where?"

"A block or two away. He didn't seem to be doing anything though, so we were watching him."

A puff of smoke appeared in the middle of everyone. It was the Shredder, holding Karai over his shoulder. She was kicking and screaming, trying everything to get free.

Karai yelled "Let me go you gosh darn imposter! You are a fudging poser, who do you think you are to do this?"

"Heh, so he's really a Z Shredder, eh?" Mikey whispered. Everybody ignored him, as Z Shredder dropped Karai on the ground.

He looked at her and grinned underneath his metal helmet. She seemed to have been seriously hurt, as she had trouble trying to get up.

Z Shredder picked up his arm, ready to slice 'n' dice her, but something happened. He didn't find himself gutting the little brat like he wanted to for so long. No, instead there was a loud metal clang.

Raphael stopped him. Raph was bent over Karai, holding on tight to his sai to block the attack.

Karai's eyes widened as she looked at him in surprise. He just grunted while pushing Z Shredder back. "What? I said I don't like you, not that I'd let you die."

April helped Karai up while the guys fought. "Thank you, umm..."

April held out her hand. "April. Do you think you can fight, or do you need the first aid kit? I have one in my purse."

Karai grabbed her right side and groaned. "I'm fine. Fight first, heal later."

Karai stood up as straight as she could and walk towards Z Shredder. "Give up, you're surrounded."

He looked around. Karai was in front of him, the two eldest turtles were next to him, then the younger two were flanking Karai, followed by April and Casey, and all the way at the back was the Justice force. He put his hands up as Karai held a sword out in his direction. Did he surrender?

Nope, he bolted. Everyone tried to grab him, and somewhere in the crowd you could hear something being sprayed out of a bottle. April's pepper spray. She stood back, giving Casey a smug look. "See, it came in handy."

He started rubbing his eyes, but kept running, until he almost bounced off of a big gray object.

Rocksteady looked down at Z Shredder and laughed. "You gotta look both ways, remember?"

Karai chuckled at the sight of Z Shredder looking so dumbfounded. "Reinforcements. Not bad, huh?"

Silver Sentry stepped in front of him. "Yeah yeah, we'll take it from here." He pinned Z Shredder against a wall with one arm, and played around with his other, trying to look like it was nothing. "Who are you? What is your goal?"

Z Shredder shook his head. Chrysalis crossed her arms, saying, "Just tell us. You're going to jail either way."

Karai popped her knuckles. "I got this, he's my problem. You just...shoo," she said, swatting the heroes away.

All four turtles grabbed him, ensuring that he wouldn't get away this time. Karai put the tip of her sword right to his throat. "Well? Give up? Who are you really?"

Casey came and took off his helmet. He looked at the panicked man, then at Bebop and Rocksteady. After a pause he asked, "Can you two do somethin' with this?" handing it to Rocksteady.

Rocksteady looked down at Casey and smirked. He was so looking forward to smashing this thing. Or giving it to Shredder and get a little more respect. Whichever.

Z Shredder took a deep breath. Finally, he spoke. "Fine. Let go of me first."

Karai nodded, and all the turtles let go.

Mikey looked over at Ananda. "K. Just one precautionary measure." He winked at her and she smirked. She closed her eyes and reached her arm out. Z Shredder found himself freed from all the ninjas but held down by an invisible force.

Leo suddenly seemed much more serious when he said the word "Talk" in a dark tone. He even took a page from Raph's book and growled a little.

"Okay, okay. I was part of the Foot." A flashback started playing.

"I knew we were bad, but hey, free living quarters and food, and some money. I couldn't say no to that." He said, envisioning a bunch of ninjas lined up, with one standing out, highlighted in red.

"I knew things were fishy." The ninja ran into a lab. When he entered there was a pink brain demanding that he force a monster back into a portal.

"But it didn't get to me until those two came along." An image of Bebop and Rocksteady flashed.

"Their screams of pain...I couldn't. I couldn't stay after that. I had to leave. I didn't want to see anyone else get tortured like that." The ninja had a bag and snuck out, not looking back.

"So, here I am. Stopping crime. And what's the best way to stop crime? Make sure it can never be done again." He looked around and whispered, "By ending their lives."

Ananda released her psychic grip.

Leo looked about ready to burst, but when he spoke he sounded more like he was giving a lecture. "This is what's right to you? Killing people?"

He sat back against a wall, looking rather pleased with himself. "I've probably saved more lives than I've taken."

Donnie's face was red. "No, not at all. I researched and most of them weren't even murderers!"

"Hey, at least I'm not slowly torturing them." He said, pointing at Karai.

She put her hand on her chest and scoffed. "Slowly torturing? It only hurt them for a minute, and look, they seem pretty happy now! You took lives!" Bebop waved in the background.

Mikey pulled his cape around him, as of he was trying to keep cozy "Yeah, and who knows, some of them could have been innocent. Haven't you seen some of the news reports where people just steal because they're poor and have no choice?"

"Still, stealing is bad."

Raph was starting to get annoyed. "Who fricking cares! That's what jail is for! 'Sides, you ain't innocent yourself."

Z Shredder just shrugged. "I know my moral code is busted, but what are you gonna do? A few lives is the cost of a peaceful city. A peaceful world."

Casey dragged his bat on the ground as he walked up to Raph. He started petting Raph on the shell in an attempt to calm him down, however, Casey himself hardly seemed calm. "I take back everything I've ever told Hun. He's like a freaking saint next to you. You can't even try to look at it in our point of view?"

"I have. But every time I imagine it, I need to get rid of all the psychos disrupting the peace, no matter how pretty." He threw a shuriken at Karai.

She caught it between her fingers. "I'm not the crazy one here, you are."

Crysalis said "Yeah, you need an insane asylum."

Silver sentry responded by saying "No, he needs a padded cell."

Ananda snickered. "Yeah, we've seen crazier. With a slightly more stable mind than most, I'm pretty sure he'd find a way out."

Z Shredder got up and dusted himself off. "I'm sorry, but I think that I am hardly worth your time. Don't you have world-saving to do?"

Silver Sentry grabbed him. The nice guy that they had seen most of the nice turned serious. It was no longer fun and games. This was war. "You think that murder isn't a serious crime? Sure, if it's one or two we leave it to the police, but you..." his grip never faltered. "You are one of the worse- no. The worst case we've ever seen. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"And for the record, we're not the only heroes. There are others taking-" Crysalis stopped talking when Sentry glared at her.

"Hey, you're on the wrong side. Don't you see the good I'm doing? Heroes are good, right?" Z Shredder's voice was actually shaking.

Raph growled. "How many times are you gonna start over again?"

Z Shredder giggled. "Until I get my way."

Mikey started moving his hand in a circular movement by his head. "Koo koo, koo koo."

Silver Sentry loosened his grip a little. "I don't believe in killing, but jail doesn't even seem like a good enough punishment for you." He dropped him to the ground.

Z Shredder rushed to get up. He seemed so calm at first glance, but when everyone saw the grin on his face, they knew it was time. There was no talking him out of it. All shell was about to break loose.

Silver Sentry tried to grab him, but he threw a smoke bomb and was gone in an instant.

He appeared between Bebop and Rocksteady. He slid his gauntlets across their legs, leaving big, red marks that were starting to bleed a little. They reached for him but accidentally headbutted each other instead, as he flipped past them. Bebop's glasses looked like they were hanging from a thread, they were so beat up. Not to mention the big scratch from hitting Rocksteady. Rocksteady, on the other hand, had two little symmetrical scrapes on his cheeks and a price of plastic stuck into his skin near his left eye.

He ran to Raph. He wanted to get him too now after he saved Karai. That one got between him and victory, as the Foot had to have been the worst on his hit list.

Raph dodged and tried stabbing Z Shredder in the gut. He was too fast. He then found a blade coming down on him. It just barely pinned the end of his bandana down.

Z Shredder leaned over him with a grin. Raph kicked him in the chest and knocked the breath out of him. Z Shredder coughed. "Nice one kid. Next time, try using your sai though. They're meant to block, not stab."

Raph looked at his weapon and gripped it tight. He chucked it at Z Shredder's stupid face. Smoke bomb.

"Don't you see? I'm a ninja. Clearly a better one than you." He said from behind Donnie.

Donatello jumped and quickly wacked Z Shredder with his staff. "Cannon fodder's more like it. You trained for what, a week? Then you were sent out like some expendable robot."

Z Shredder laughed. "True, true, but you see-" he grabbed the staff and hit Donnie over his plastron, right where his chest is, then shoved the tip into Donnie jaw, creating a loud cracking noise, "-I studied and worked harder. Funny, you have the best weapon here, but that's not worth much when the user barely knows how to use it properly."

Donnie grabbed his jaw. He muttered something under his breath that sounded unfriendly, but nobody really knew what. He just hoped that all anyone could hear was "fudge" at most.

He looked at Z Shredder, who was now holding his bo staff. "Not bad, how did something like you get this?" He said, examining the stick.

Leo snuck up behind Z Shredder. He grabbed him and covered his mouth, holding his katana to his neck.

"You're outnumbered. There's three superheroes, six mutants, two good, strong fighters, and pepper spray."

Z Shredder laughed. He lifted up the staff and knocked the sword out of Leo's hand. "Pepper spray? Come on, be serious. And superheroes are honor bound not to hurt people too badly, right? Two of the mutants are idiots, and the other four are well-" he picked up the sword. A large crack ran down it now. "-not as stupid, but that's not saying much, seeing as they don't even know how to fight! And good fighters? Pfft."

Leo looked around. He was right. They were young, dumb, and incompetent. "You're wrong. Good always triumphs, so no matter what, we have that on our side."

Z Shredder was busy with Mikey, telling him that his weapon serves no real purpose when he turned around. "What?" He scoffed.

"We're the heroes. We're destined to win no matter what." Leo said with a grin on his face.

Mikey gave a similar mischievous grin. He drop kicked Z Shredder.

"Well, you talk too much." Mikey giggled.

Z Shred got up and yelled "Come here pipsqueak!" trying to get a hold of Mikey. Smoke bomb after smoke bomb though, he would vanish.

"You likin' the taste of your own medicine?!" Michelangelo yelled from on top of a building.

Casey was sitting on the ground next to April, starting to doze off, when he felt a giant hand grab his shoulder. He jumped, realizing it was Rocksteady.

Rocksteady held out the helmet he had been holding this whole time. "Wanna play ball?"

Casey smiled and grabbed his bat from the bag on his back. "Gladly."

Z Shredder looked at the Superheroes. Ananda was sitting on the ground with her eyes closed.

He attempted to do something to her, to prove who will really be victorious, but instead, he felt himself fall over. No, not fall. Like he was being pulled towards the ground.

He felt whatever it was release him, and she smiled, with her eyes still closed. She was biding her time for something.

He looked around. Where did Karai go?

A metal object then came flying towards the back of his head, and he fell over. It was his helmet. Casey and Rocksteady were laughing and sticking their tongues out at him. He just rubbed the back of his head and gave a fake laugh back. "Good one."

That force started weighing him down again, this time with a firmer grip. Ananda smiled and stood up. Everyone then circled around him.

"Are we seriously going to beat this guy up like this? Seems kinda unfair." Leo said nervously.

"Who cares. He deserves everything that's comin' to him." Raph responded, popping his knuckles.

Mikey stopped twirling his nunchucks. "Yeah, but he's kinda helpless now. Aren't we torturing him like he claimed the Foot did? If they're so bad too then..."

Donnie stepped forward. "How about we keep him like this until the police arrive? Nobody hits him, but we're not letting him go either."

Bebop and Rocksteady pouted and said, "But he hurt my best friend!" At the same time.

Casey shrugged. "Beat him up, let'im go with a lesson learned."

April rolled her eyes. "Call 911 and arrest him, duh!" She pulled out her phone and was getting ready to dial the number when Silver Sentry stopped her.

"Let us deal with it. He may even be bad enough that we'll have to send him out to a secret asylum for the worst of the worst."

Karai stepped forward. "This is a Foot problem. I must deal with it."

"Alright, can you hurry up and choose what to do? Can't hold him forever you know..." Ananda said impatiently.

Karai nodded. "Let him up."

Ananda did so, and took a deep breath before leaning against Silver Sentry, looking drowsy.

Z Shredder leaned against a wall, beaten. There has to be a getaway though, no matter how tired he was.

Karai turned to Bebop. "Do you have those handcuffs that you snagged a while back?"

Meanwhile, a dark hand reached for Z Shredder. The figure had on gauntlets, and covered his mouth, while holding a blade right across his neck. Z Shredder was pulled away, his screams muffled. This was it. His end.

Bebop nodded and pulled them out of a pocket on his pants.

She grabbed them and said "thanks."

She turned around, and he was gone. Z Shredder just went poof! No trace of him being there or where he went.

Karai looked up. The sun was coming up. They were out all night! "I better go. And so should you." She said.

She threw a smoke bomb. When the smoke cleared up, Bebop and Rocksteady were gone too, but something was left behind. Some car keys.

Donatello picked up the keys. "Yeah, that's real nice and all, but I think this was dropped on accident."

Raph grabbed the keys from Donnie. "Accident or not, we don't know where they live, so we can't return them."

"We also don't know where the car is," Donnie said, snatching the keys back. He looked down at the ice cream cone shaped remote and started pressing buttons in the hopes of hearing something.

Mikey peeked around the corner and saw a car lighting up. Pop music started playing. Very bad pop music. Like, something he even finds too cheery. "Raph, Case. I think I found the van you said Bebop and Rocksteady used when you met."

"No freaking way..." Raph muttered.

Leo just stared. "Maybe we could keep it?"

April pushed the turtles aside. "It might be a good idea actually. I have to start getting ready for school soon."

The superheroes gathered around Mikey. Silver Sentry struck the most righteous superhero pose he could in front of Mikey. "Turtle Titan. Tonight was your first night on the job, and nothing went wrong. At least, nothing within your control." Mikey nodded slowly. "Would you like to come live with us in the headquarters? We're not the only three heroes that live there."

"Yeah, we're just the ones on duty at the moment," Crysilis said, sounding oh so chipper.

Ananda rolled her eyes. "Chrysi, how many times have we gone over this? We don't talk about our schedules in public."

Mikey laughed a little. "Nah. I'm sorry, but I can't leave my brothers."

"Oh, really? Okay then. You would have fit right in y'know."

Mikey clutched his cape. "Wait. I'd still be a member though, right?"

Silver Sentry was getting ready to take off. "Of course. See you soon I guess." He took off flying, followed by Ananda, then Crysilis.

Chrysi paused for a minute and turned around. "Oh, and miss O'Neil! See you in class!"

April raised an eyebrow. "Wait. Does that mean..."

"Whatever," Casey said happily as he climbed into the truck. "I need some sleep. So do you. 'Cause you're a good egg."

April snickered and sat in the driver seat. "Okay, everybody inside?"

There was only one seat; the driver's seat. The back was hollowed out. It appeared to have once stored ice cream, but now it was full of some stolen stuff, leaving the guys trying not to fall over and break anything.

She turned on the radio, and the song started.

Everyone started shouting to turn it off immediately. April did so, then turned around and quietly said "Sorry."

"I'm fixing that as soon as possible," Donnie said as they drove off.

Karai was home. Her wounds had been tended to. Her father was mad that she failed. He had to go and do the job for her. Her argument was that the mission was a failure because of Baxter's Tech Ninjas.

"What's your deal?" Karai asked Baxter.

"What? I just want to help create the best soldier while also saving lives." He said with a fake sweetness in his voice. She just raised an eyebrow, unamussed. "Its because I want money, that's why." He answered for real.

Karai just rolled her eyes and looked at what her dear father was doing.

Her father looked at the criminal. They were in the lab. "You took the name of the Shredder. You dishonored the Foot. Do you know what the punishments for such things are?"

Z Shredder shook his head. He now wore an eyepatch, implying that he's already gotten some kind of punishment.

"You will be subjected to an experiment. You see, the previous two..." He didn't know how to describe Bebop and Rocksteady really "They're imbeciles."

Krang turned away from his computer. "Saki, you're just wasting supplies." He said angrily.

"Don't worry, you'll still have enough to fuel your portal. Besides, don't forget that I can just squash you." Krang just rolled his eyes at this statement.

"Stockman!" Saki yelled. The scientist came from the other side of the room. "Take care of him."

Baxter strapped the man to a chair and pulled out a syringe full of a glowing green substance. He injected it into the imposter, and sat back, taking a sadistic amount of joy in his screams.

The screams turned into growls and roars. A new mutant was created.


	8. Chapter 8

**The Escape**

 _Day 1_

Krang sat down down on his high stool, tapping away at a computer. He was trying to pull something out from his home: Dimension X.

Every time he got the portal open, either the wrong creature would come through or it would lead to another dimension. Then he'd suck them right back to wherever they came from.

Every once and a while somebody would come in to check on him, usually Baxter. Baxter rarely helped and would usually just tell him to hurry up, but when he did help, Krang couldn't help but to feel sabotaged as every time the calculations would be even more off than they initially were.

Finally, he thinks he has it. Or is at very least closer than he's been. Maybe if it's not what he wants it'll still be somebody helpful this time?

The lights went off as the portal glowed brighter than it ever had. Krang looked at the bright light with shock. His eyes widened to the point that they glistened.

Finally, a mangled figure flew out. A glimpse of green and orange can be seen, but it mostly remains in the shadows.

Krang scrambled back and tried desperately to get the power back on. The figure lunged at him and spoke in a raspy voice. "Where am I? Who are you?" It asked. Krang started to shake as the creature's nails started digging into him.

"This...is..." He started trying to wiggle himself out of its grasp- "the planet Earth."

The creature tilted its head in confusion, letting that sink in, then Krang bit its hand.

The thing hissed in pain and stumbled backward.

Krang started panting. This is why he needs some sort of robotic body.

The door swung open. Everyone rushed into the room.

Oroku Saki stood straight. He glared at the pink brain. "What happened here?" He asked menacingly.

* * *

Leo couldn't do anything but blink a few times.

Splinter was ready to tell them who Shredder was. Sure, they were risking quite a bit by asking, but they had to know. So Leo sat down and had tea with Splinter. All of them actually, which is a rather rare sight to behold.

Mikey took a sip of his tea and stuck out his tongue. He grabbed the sugar container that was sitting on the floor and dumped in two or three big scoops. He took another sip and smiled, giving a big thumbs up.

Raph hardly touched his, just tracing the edge of the cup. He chose the chipped cup because he didn't plan on drinking much.

Donnie slowly sipped his through a straw. Maybe Mikey and Raph were onto something. It kinda tastes like dirty water without sugar.

Leo was the only one drinking his 'properly'.

Splinter set down his cup on the floor next to him. "Why are you four in here?"

Leo tried to speak, but nothing came out except for a small stutter.

Donnie pulled the straw away from his mouth, took a deep breath, and asked, "Who is The Shredder?"

Splinter sighed. "I have told you, he is someone dangerous who you should not worry about. Why do you ask again?"

Raph and Mikey exchanged looks. They should spill the truth. Well, okay Splinter didn't need to know that Mikey is now legally classified as a superhero. Mikey held on tight to his cup. He stared at his reflection in the tea. He couldn't bear to look Splinter in the eye and tell him about the other night. "We snuck out a couple days ago." He mumbled.

"Wait. Before you try to ground us again, we had a good reason this time. We weren't just goofing off on patrol, we were taking down a criminal." Leo chimed in. "I know, we didn't learn, but, father, you need to realize that we can handle ourselves."

"Look, we can kinda tell that Oruko Saki is The Shredder, but can you please just tell us what happened?!" Raph pleaded. "What started it all. What..." his voice started to crack a little. He loves Splinter, but he's so sick of hearing the same thing over and over again. "...what did you do to make him so mad, exactly?"

Splinter closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"We were in love with the same woman." He began. "This you know. You know that we fought. You know that I fled. You know that he was persistent. By what you don't know are the details."

"We were best friends. We loved her. We loved Tang Shen." A flashback of a young Hamato Yoshi and Oruko Saki played. They were talking to each other, laughing, before noticing a beautiful woman sitting by a fountain. They walked up to her, and began asking her something. She giggles and answers, causing the two to blush.

"Sure, we fought and teased each other, but after a while, this was no longer a playful crush to him, this was war."

Saki started yelling at Yoshi. Yoshi shrugged it off, and you hear a slight bit of audio of Yoshi saying in the flashback "It's her choice, you can only do so much."

"He told his older brother, Nagi. Around that time, it was time for us to officially become part of the Foot, and Nagi would have become the leader."

One flashback shows Saki looking miffed while telling Nagi something. Nagi tried to comfort him, it Saki pushed him away and asked something. You hear a small bit of audio of Nagi saying "Maybe".

Another showed maybe people -mostly in their late teens the to early twenties- bowing. It was a rehearsal.

Leo interrupted with "Wait, so you were part of the Foot?"

Mickey followed up with "What happened then?"

Splinter held up a finger, "Patience. Let me explain."

"On the night of the ceremony, Nagi came at me with a sword, threatening to kill me. He wanted to see his little brother happy, and if he murdered me, it wouldn't matter once he becomes clan leaer."

A fight broke out between the two, then something happened. Yoshi was shocked by what he had just done. He didn't mean to, he was just defending himself.

In real time, Splinter was choking up. "I killed him. Saki became the clan leader and he exiled me. I told him, it was an accident, Nagi was crazy. For such crimes, I would have been executed. I guess he still loved me too much. At least, that's what I thought."

This flashback futures a burning building. Inside, Yoshi frantically searches for a way to reach his wife and daughter in the burning home. "He set fire to my home. The thing is, he killed Shen and Miwa, not me."

Tears rolled down Splinter's face. Donnie noticed and gently said, "Father, you can stop."

Mikey put down his teacup and crawled over to Splinter. He gave his father a hug. "It's okay daddy. It's in the past."

Splinter wiped the tears away. "It's alright my son's, I will continue. You deserve to know."

"He knew I got away unharmed. There were no signs of my body afterward. I came to New York in Shen's honor, as she always wanted to explore."

He got on a small plane, like something you would see in an old timely movie, that could only seat one or two people. The pilot wore a large blue scarf and goggles, so you could hardly see his face. Yoshi thanked him as they took off.

"He always wanted to see the Big Apple too, and he knew Shen wanted to as well. He followed me. I lived peacefully for a while. Then a building called TCRI opened up. I was suspicious of it, not because of the possibility that Saki was there, but because of the mystery surrounding the place. No one entered, no one exited. I took a job there to investigate."

Yoshi walked in and handed the receptionist a stack of papers. He looked around nervously, as most of them were fake. The woman gave him a badge and said, "right this way." What a weird way to be approved for a job.

"It seemed fairly normal. We were merely testing things out on animals. I often fed them." He put his hand into a tank with four baby turtles in it and started petting one with his finger.

"Then one day, I was called to the back, where the experiments were conducted. Saki was there, and he called himself ' The Shredder'. It turns out he wanted mutant dogs to seek me out. No need now though, he found me. I ran and hid." He's shown in a supply closet with a stack of papers. They were the evidence of all of this.

"I found you four. I put the papers in the tank and ran off. I accidentally bumped into a shelf full of canisters of this glowing blue substance. The canisters fell and broke, getting all over us. I didn't think much of it at the time. I just ran out, and hid in the sewers. I was exhausted and fell to sleep down there. And I don't think I need to go into more detail about what happened next." The flashback shown reflected this. Splinter woke up to four toddler sized turtles trying to wake him up, and that was that.

The turtles all looked amazed.

Raph was the first to speak, saying "So Saki went crazy?"

Splinter nodded. "I believe so, yes."

"Dad, I'm sorry, really. I never knew Shen...I just thought she was... She married you? She's dead?" Leo pondered.

"Yes. Three lives lost. Thanks to me. If I had let Nagi kill me, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Saki would still be living peacefully. He probably would have helped Shen care for Miwa. Shen and Miwa would still be alive and well." Splinter's vision was getting blurry as tears built up.

"This is why I don't want you near the Foot. I don't want you to wind up like me.".

Leo stood up. "That's why we have to go. You didn't mean to kill Nagi, did you? And even then, he seemed to have been psychotic. We need to stand up for what's right."

Splinter shook his head. "No, no justice. No vengeance. It only makes things worse."

"But father" Don almost whispered. "Don't you see? He's taken it too far. If we're not doing it for you, let us do it for the city."

Mikey said the next part. "I'm sorry to hear what happened, but that's just it. You've suffered enough, we don't want anyone else to."

"'Sides, there's too much crime out there. Casey can't take it all on himself." Raph chimed in.

The turtles now stood lined up with their fists clenched. "Please" Leo whispered.

Splinter stood up as well and looked down at them. They had grown so much in fifteen years. He thought back to when they were babies. They were lined up in front of him in this room, in shoe boxes with raggedy blankets (that later became their bandanas) to keep them cozy. And the first time they trained they had looked so confident, just like right now, but it was as simple as learning self-defence, not that they were actually setting out to protect a city. Now they stand here, ready to go on their own. He needed to let go.

"It is time that I let you go and discover the world for yourselves, yes. I will try to be more excepting and let you deal with the thing on your own instead of grounding you when things get serious. However, you must tell me when you are going out and what's happening. I just do not want you four in over your heads."

They all nodded in unison and thanked Spinter in their own silent ways, from nodding to the simple smile on their face, to a peace sign hand gesture, to an actual thank you. They were ready.

 _Day 5_

It had been a few days since the creature came out of the portal. Not much was known about it other than it was a she and she could turn invisible. That's why she was kept in a cage of solid steel and plexiglass with a high tech lock and a camera that sensed heat signatures.

She was mostly silent. She was rather insect-like, so every once and a while she would buzz, but nothing major.

Bebop, Rocksteady, and the new mutant that they've been calling Tigerclaw walked into the lab, looking for Shredder.

Baxter turned away from the computer system and sighed. "Isn't he in his usual place on that pretty little thrown?"

The gruesome twosome shook their heads.

"We thought you'd know." Said Rocksteady.

Bebop was holding on tightly to the restraints placed around Tigerclaw's wrists to prevent attacks.

"We have an idea." He let go for a moment, pointed to his mohawk, and winked.

Baxter just shook his head and threw his hands up. "Whatever. Ask his little brat, I don't know!"

Tigerclaw's body went stiff as a board at the mention of 'the brat'. As they walked out, Bebop had to tug at the rope a little to make him move along.

When they reached Karai's room they could hear Shredder yelling at her.

"You couldn't do your _job_ , Karai. You failed the Foot!"

"Because what would the honor have been in killing a man?!"

Shredder sighed and turned him back. "You are indeed right. It's not honorable. But neither was his clan. You know what their master did to your uncle. My brother." He closed his eyes and brushed against the doorway. "It's not honorable. It's fair."

He was slightly startled when he walked out of the room and immediately saw the three mutants. They rarely wandered around the living quarters aside from their own.

"Master Shredder," Rocksteady started.

"We want to ask for an alliance with the Purple dragons." Bebop finished.

Casey and Raph sat atop a building, chatting away.

"Pretty sure he was mad, but hey, we're allowed out again. Granted, we're not allowed to watch the news for a month, so you and April gotta be our eyes and ears." You hear Raph say. He held a can of soda in his hand and waved it around as he spoke.

Casey laughed. "Dang, sounds like a privilege. When I was little I wasn't allowed to watch any TV when I was grounded. News? That's nothin', it's boring."

Raph stared into the almost empty can to see how much soda was left, then glanced at Casey out of the corner of his eye. "How are you a vigilante if it's so boring then?"

Casey leaned back and gave a smug smile. "Who said I watch the news? I just pick up on things."

Raph rolled his eyes in defeat.

Casey pulled out his phone to check the time. "Hmm. This isn't far from where Hun lives. Haven't seen 'im all night. Weird."

"I bet he'll turn up eventually. For now, let's just chill." Raph leaned back and put his arms behind his head. "Beatin' up criminals is fun, but after what Splinter said, man. I don't know. The gruesome twosome used to be Dragons, right?"

Casey took a moment to figure out what Raph was getting at. "No way. They're idiots _and_ they swore to leave the Purple dragons. No way they can get assistance for the Foot."

* * *

Day 7

Arrangements were made for the Purple Dragons and Foot to meet. They would form an alliance and rule this city. Well, Hun would. Meanwhile, Shredder gets his revenge.

The room was long, with a throne at the end. It was the first floor but rarely used unless Saki either had a meeting or it was a busy day.

Shredder was not sitting in the throne, however. He stood in front of it, with Karai, Bebop, Rocksteady, and Tigerclaw surrounding him.

Hun walked towards him with a handful of gang members following.

"What's this about an alliance?" Hun spat, crossing his arms.

Shredder seemed slightly taken aback but calmly responded anyway. "I am Oroku Saki, and this is the Foot Clan. Your former comrades recommended that we ask something of you. Help getting vengeance on an enemy that just won't die. In return, I will help you run this city's criminal underworld and create a name for yourself."

Hun raised an eyebrow and smirked just the slightest. "I'm listening."

And so was someone else. The creature in the lab could hear the conversation through the vents.

She had been planning her escape for a few days. She knew about the meeting, and this was the perfect time to make a run for it.

She popped the glass out of the frame of the cage, and ever so gently put it down so she wouldn't wake up the sleepy Krang.

All color faded from her. She was now completely transparent.

She climbed up onto the ceiling and crawled upside down.

Eventually, she reached the first floor and dropped down.

"So you see, bring me Yoshi and his little freaks, and I will help you steal your heart out."

Before Hun could answer, he felt someone get close and whisper in his ear. "Hello. I am Malignus. You may call me Mal. Can you do me a favor?" His voice was soothing, seductive even. She continued to whisper to him.

He looked up with an almost blank look on his face, then turned to the other members of the gang and said, "Wreck this place."

Within moments there was chaos. Footbots and henchmen fighting of simple gangsters.

The Shredder looked around at the fighting and yelled "Hun, what is the meaning of this?!"

Hun didn't respond. Instead, he silently walked up to Shredder and punched him in the gut. Sorta. He hit Shredder's armor. Oddly enough, it didn't seem to hurt him. His knuckles bled a little, but he paid no mind.

Shredder picked him up by the collar. "You cannot just come into my home, disrespected my clan, and not expect a punishment." His voice was like a startling boom.

Malignus decided that this was the time to let go. She stood where Hun just was, hands on her hips, another pair tapping her wings, as she watched things unfold with a nasty smirk on her invisible face.

Hun blinked a few times. "Lemme go!" He pulled Shredder's hand away. He seemed oblivious to what just happened.

He took a couple steps back. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you get." He looked at the armored man. He seemed arrogant to say this stuff. Or scared. Maybe both.

Shredder was confused but nodded. "I see. You try to start a feud and blame it on _me?_ Yes, you are getting a fight. A _war_."

The stakes were set. This was war.


	9. Chapter 9

The Battle

The turtles stand before The Shredder. Horrified they are. Then you hear Leonardo say this:

"Yeah, this is cliche, I know. But you really have to know how we got here in this situation.

"We came to surface. We met people. Some were good, some were bad."

Visuals of April, Casey, Karai, and Hun are shown.

"We fought a bad one claiming to be this guy, The Shredder." The Z Shredder is shown, surrounded by turtles, heroes, and other allies.

"We knew of the Foot before, but then it seemed so much more real." Splinter can be seen sitting them down, telling them what happened years ago.

"And now we're here, we may or may not have been dragged into some trouble with some dragons who got into a fight with the Foot," the purple dragons are standing in front of Shredder. They appear to be arguing, then things fade out into a black screen.

The Shredder casts a shadow over the turtles. They cower a little, then grip their weapons, getting into fighting position.

"And there's something that's telling me that this won't end pretty!"

Casey watched Hun cast a shadow over a boy. He asked the guy something, then the guy said no. Hun got mad and lifted his fist. He came this close to hitting the kid before Casey stepped in.

He pushed Hun out of the way furiously, letting the kid escape. "Hun, what da frick?" He asked furiously. "This is a new low, even for you. I wouldn't condone violence unless it's for a good cause. Did I condone you beating people for cash? No, but I can see where you're coming from. But this?" He pointed to the direction the guy ran off to. "This has no motivation. What were you doing?"

Hun grimaced, then gave a large, rather demented smile. Despite how much bigger and intimidating Hun looked, Casey wasn't scared. He just looked Hun in the eye, ready to bash that skull in.

Hun broke the silence by giggling ironically. "Wouldn't you like to know." He shoved Casey out of the way and walked off.

Casey followed. The school halls made it a little hard to keep track of him, but it was the end of the day anyway.

Of course. Hun met up with the dragons in a small, abandoned garden on campus that nobody visited.

He hid around a corner and listened to the conversation.

"Looks, all I'm sayin' is, is it really that necessary? I'm all in for creating a name for us, but fightin' a ninja samurai dude with ninjas? I'm not sure if the idea is so absurd we'll look like fools for playing along, or so dangerous that it'll end us."

"I was there with Hun. I saw it with my own eyes. They're real, trained, and deadly. Show 'em your back, Dolly."

"Alright, alright, that's enough." Hun's voice cut through the chatter and noises of awe.

He paused for a moment. "Dolly, c'mon, you know this isn't one of those meetings. Pull your shirt down."

There were giggles and snickers in response to this, then a female's voice cuts through. "Sorry babe, but I was showing Ace here proof that the Foot's real. He didn't believe us, but I think my scar is enough proof."

Hun sighed. "Look, we have to stick together as a team, so you're either coming to participate in this battle, or you're not Purple Dragons. Understood?"

Many voices started. Some said they didn't want to die, others said they didn't want to give up. They were split.

At this point, if all those who wanted to leave left, there wouldn't be enough Purple Dragons period.

"Fine, how 'bout this. If you're wusses and don't wanna go, you can run around the city and take care of our usual crimes. If you're brave like me, you can come to the battle. Deal?"

There were many different ways of agreeing, ranging from "I" to "got it" and "deal."

Everyone sounded happy. Casey had to admit that Hun seemed to be a decent leader. One with crooked morals, but he seemed to be good at compromising.

Casey took a step back, further away from the garden, and wondered if he should go talk to them? It was a long shot, but they were both against the Foot. Just maybe...Nah, he shouldn't. Should he?

He took a deep breath and walked into the garden. He was nervous but tried not to show it. "Hun, I'd like to help."

Hun started laughing. "You? Last time I checked, you hated my guts." He stood up and shoved his way through the crowd, looking down at Casey curiously.

"Well, I hate the Foot clan even more." He maintained eye contact. "I'll do whatever it takes to help you in this battle."

"Seriously Case?" Leo almost yelled.

Casey nodded slowly, then looked up desperately. "Hey, you of all people should know that sometimes to be a good hero, you gotta do the wrong things the right reasons. Greater good and all that shiz."

Casey sat on the couch in the lair, while Leo stood over him, refusing to believe what he just heard.

Raph leaned on the back of the couch. "Frick. Are you dragging us into this too?"

Casey rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe. You do wanna know where the Foot's headquarters is, right? You gotta at least come along to find them."

Donnie was next to Raph, twiddling his thumbs. "Dunno, Casey has a point. How else are we supposed to find out where to find the Foot?"

Mikey giggled. "Over the course of well-placed hints over the next three to four seasons."

Mikey was perched on the armrest. Raph rolled his eyes and pushed him, saying "Be serious, Mike."

"What? I am. What if we're in over our heads? Feels like this is happening too fast! We're just kids!" Mikey seemed genuinely nervous and ready to give up.

Raph raised an eyebrow. "I thought you wanted to grow up."

"Yeah, I wanted Leo and Don to have faith in me on missions! I wanted you to swear freely around me! I wanted Leo to stop acting like I can't do crud! But this is different. It's avenging our father's dead family and possibly dying in the process! We're only teenagers, and sure, we've fought crime, but you saw the fake Shredder. If the real guy is really that much tougher, we're turtle soup." He seemed panicked and the slightest bit angry. He curled up into the fetal position.

Leo was taken back. "Look, baby bro, it's gonna be okay. Maybe this is a little quick, but it's for Splinter." He came over and hugged Mikey.

Donnie muttered, "I don't think he ever asked for us to kill Saki."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Who said we would kill Saki? He's going to jail.

"And, with this, so will the dragons!" Casey added on.

Raph smirked. "So, what's the plan?"

Plans started coming one after another in Leo's head. He looked down, then grinned. "Well..."

Saki swore he kept hearing something crawling around. He was aware of Malignus escaping, but so far couldn't find her. Krang and Baxter have even convinced him that the noises he heard were paranoia since she was nowhere to be seen. Not even the faintest outline or distortion of light nearby to show her in her supposedly invisible form.

"Sir, I think she is the least of our problems right now. We need more Foot bots and Krang's stone soldiers for the incoming gang attack." Baxter tried to convince Shredder.

Shredder was close to defeat. "Fine. We may let this go momentarily. We must stop her at some point, however. Think about the trouble she can cause in the city."

"By the way, I'd hardly call a petty gang a large problem. They merely have to be dealt with upholding the Foot's reputation." Shredder added on as he walked back downstairs.

The next day

Casey followed Hun to the garden. He sat down in a bed of dead flowers, smack dab in the middle of the crowd.

The gang members stared. There were murmurs from the crowd.

"Who's pretty boy?"

"What's the punk doing here?"

"He won't last a day here."

A blonde girl next to Casey rolled her eyes before leaning in towards him. "Don't listen to them. Seeing as you and your turtle friends are the only people we have it out for specifically, you're not in for much. Worst you'll go through is the tattoo."

"Uhh, thanks? I get to choose where the tattoo goes, right?" He asked nervously. He never agreed on helping them in crime, and Hun was actually okay with that. He just wanted the extra muscle for the Foot battle. Defacing his body with the symbol of the Purple Dragons, on the other hand, felt wrong. Sure, it was just a tattoo, but it meant something more. It meant he was once associated with them.

"Yeah, you can make it look however, as long as it's it's a dragon, and it's purple." She motioned to everyone around the room.

Casey smiled a little. That made him feel better, at least. "Thanks, uhh..."

"Name's Gabriella, Gabe for short. Everyone here calls me Dolly though."

He looked her up and down. She wore a white crop top and skinny jeans. Her hair was tied in pigtails, however a good chunk covered her face. When she tucked her hair behind her ear, he noticed an eyebrow piercing.

He was taken aback for a moment, then realized he should introduce himself. "Hi. I'm-"

He was cut off by her grabbing his hand and shaking it. "Casey Jones. Yeah, I've heard of you. Your turtles' friends too."

Casey pulled his hand away. "And you're happy to see me?"

She tilted her head. "Why wouldn't I be? We need you. Besides, you're actually pretty nice."

"Casey Jones, come up for your tattoo," Hun called calmly.

"Good luck." She winked at him as he got up.

He walked up slowly. Next to Hun was a man with a pen and some ink. Didn't exactly seem professional until you looked at the man himself. He was covered in tats! He had a dragon wrapped around his arm, then many things, ranging from playing cards to dollar signs everywhere else.

"Where do you want it?" The man asked in a gravelly voice.

"Umm, can I just have it on my shoulder?" Casey asked as he turned around.

The man pulled up Casey's shirt, then paused for a moment. "This scar, it's cut in the shape of a dragon."

Casey looked over his shoulder. "Yeah, me and Hun actually got into some stuff when we were younger."

"And you're sure you don't just want me to trace the scar?"

"Fine, whatever, just do it."

Casey started screaming. The crowd members were either laughing or cringing.

Casey was on the couch holding an ice pack against his back. The process of the tattoo was painful; he swore it went deeper than it was supposed to.

"Lemme get this straight." Mikey held out his hands. "You can handle a Rhino-man charging you into a wall, but you can't handle a tattoo?"

Casey straightened up a bit. "Hey, it was made slowly with trashy ink and a dull needle over an old scar." His ice pack slipped, making him briefly feel pain.

Donatello looked at the exposed inked skin. "Tattoos should be bandaged. Please tell me that it was at least disinfected here and there."

"Hah! I knew something was done wrong!" He let go of the ice pack to point at the other the turtles. "Ow, ow."

Donnie took a deep breath. "I'll go get some stuff to clean that."

Leo shook his head. "Okay, so when are they going to face the Foot?"

"This Saturday."

"Okay. Two days to prepare. And we have to get into tomorrow's meeting?" Leo was making sure he had all the facts straight.

"Yes. Hun said you don't have to do orientation though since they're not sure how well it'd work on mutant turtle skin." He chuckled a little bit. "You guys are sooo lucky."

Raph sat down next to him and put a hand on Casey's shoulder. "Sorry to put you through that. At least when you get married one day you'll have an interesting story to tell."

Don returned with first aid equipment. "So, tomorrow. We have our plan set, right?"

The next day

Hun watched eagerly as Casey walked into the garden.

"Well, where are the freaks?"

"Be patient. They don't come out until night." Casey answered, slipping his mask on.

It cuts to a scene of the turtles masked by the shadows. They hopped a fence, snuck through the school, then finding themselves on the sports field. No one was practicing anything, luckily (and because of that there were no lights. While perfect, they couldn't tell what sport it was for).

After walking past the field for a while, they reached the garden.

Leo was the first to walk into the candlelight. He tried his best to seem serious, but it became hard when he paid attention to the people around them. They stared, then mutters arose as he walked through the crowd.

"See, told you they were freakish."

"Still look better than what happened to Bop 'n' Rock."

"C'mon, it's not that bad. They're actually sorta cutesy."

Mikey tried not to step on the flowers. They were already dead, and that's what bothered him, the thought that these were once living and that they're practically corpses at this point.

Donnie almost felt self-conscious. He never realized that people would react this negatively to them. Then again, maybe it's because they're enemies.

Raph heard the word "monsters" be yelled. He looks for whoever yelled it, then snarls and points in the person's direction. "Interpret that gesture however you want ya' dibstick!" He yelled at them.

Hun stood at the end of the crowd in front of a bench, surprised to see the turtles show up. Casey sat on the bench with a grin on his face. "Told'ya they'd come."

Leo bowed when he got up there. "Turtles, at your service."

Hun smiled a little, then leaned towards Casey. "Hmm. I'll admit Jones, this is a better plan than what that nerd in the hallway would've come up with."

"Well, we got a nerd too. Only he has brawn too so ya' can't hurt 'im." Raph said. He put his arm around Donnie and gave him a noogie.

Donnie nodded nervously.

Donatello attempted to speak. He opened his mouth but found that no sound came out. He tried again. "So uh, we have a plan already, if you don't don't mind." He stuttered.

Leo gave him a pat on the back. "Okay, let me explain it, Don."

Leonardo looked up at the man in front of him, then at Casey. He took a deep breath. "Okay, here's how it goes. Tomorrow we sneak into the Foot headquarters. Whatever you do, try to keep the fight contained inside the building. We don't need anything spilling about anybody. So while your dragons fight off the Foot soldiers, we will aid you in battling the Shredder himself. Once he is down, all of us will run away and Casey will call the cops on account of he found a criminal organization."

Mikey looked over at Leo. "Wait, if it was that easy to call the cops why aren't the Purple Dragons in jail yet?" Leo nudged him, annoyed but trying to keep up a smile that was begging for approval on the plan.

Hun smiled, then snickered. "You got yourselves a deal." He held out his hand for all of them to shake. They each shook his hand rather uncomfortably.

"Oh, and I've been to jail. No prison can hold me though. Jones should know."

The next day

The fight is today

"So, are we set, master?" Tigerclaw asked Shredder.

Saki stood in front of his throne, watching his clan prepare. Baxter sent out his Foot bots and mousers. Karai sharpened her swords. Bebop charged up his chainsaw and Rocksteady made sure his hammer was secure and the head wouldn't go flying off.

They were ready for war.

The doors opened up and in came Hun.

"Look, Oroku Saki, before we start, why don't we talk? This had to have been some sort of misunderstanding."

The Shredder stepped forward. His face was cold with anger. "You came in and disrespected not only my clan but my home. My family. I do not think you should be forgiven. I am a simple man. I will get what I want regardless of the payment. However, if I must be honest, you are a lowlife crook who had no place disrespecting me. Whatever happens to you in this battle, you will deserve for the many people you have harmed not even to maintain your honor, but for the mere sake of putting others at risk."

Hun hung his head in partial shame. "I see. Well, if you won't listen to me, let's get this over with."

Gang members came in. In comparison to the number of disposable foot soldiers, they were puny, but that didn't matter. They weren't robots, which meant that they can fight smoother, quicker, and can be less predictable. They also had determination on their side.

In the back of the group, there was Casey with the turtles. All their hearts were racing.

Shredder looked down upon the group. "Very well. May the battle begin."

Karai was the first one to run into battle. Followed by the mutants. Then a flood of bots- both mousers and soldiers.

Hun dodged Karai's sword. She stomped her foot, then took a deep breath. "Quite the confident fighter, aren't you?"

A wide smile spread across Hun's face. He grabbed her, refusing to let go. He looked over his shoulder, where our heroes were still standing. "What are you waiting for? Go!"

They started running up to Shredder's throne.

Karai grabbed Hun's arms, got a good grip, then flipped out of his arms, kneeing him in the face. She ran towards the turtles, sword held tight.

Leonardo stopped in his tracks as he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Whatever it was, it was lodged deep in there and scrapped his shell.

"I didn't want to do this, Leo. Please. Stop right now, before he ends you."

He couldn't move out of fear. With the blade still in him, Karai leaned over to look him in the face. "Life or death right now. You can live with this wound as a reminder to never face the Foot, or you can die with this wound as a suicide note. Which is it?"

He looked her in the eye. "I'll fight, and survive with this wound as a souvenir." He attempted to laugh but cringed in pain. "I'm pretty sure this isn't helping me live, you know."

She pulled the sword out. A small chunk of Leo's shell fell to the ground. "Your funeral then. I'm not fighting you, I'm fighting the Dragons."

She ran back down, red stains on the sword, she dodged everyone coming near her, nicking a few people a few times. She looked back up at the turtles on the staircase, smiling, as if to say "Good luck."

Leonardo fell to the ground. The cut was starting to bleed quick. He looked up at his brothers, who were staring in shock. "What? It's just a little blood. Now, why the hell didn't you guys help me?"

Raph kneeled next to him, inspecting the wound. "Same reason you didn't help yourself. I was scared that we'd screw you up if we tried pulling it out ourselves."

Donnie reached into a pocket on his belt and pulled out some gauze. He motioned for Raphael to move out of the way. "Mikey, I need your help with this."

Mikey grabbed one end of the gauze and wrapped it around Leo's torso. Donnie shifted it into place, covering as much of the cut as he could.

"Never leave a turtle behind." He said, patting the covered area. Raph helped Leo up, then they walked up the stairs.

Down below, Casey was dancing, so to speak, with Karai. "Come on, you won't fight the turtles, but you're fighting me?"

Karai swiped her sword again. "You're a dragon now. I'm sorry. I know you're not bad, but it's my mission."

She had missed him, just barely. "Then let's work together. I know that you're not all that bad either."

Her lips curled into a wide grin. "I won't betray my father, however, could you do me a favor and focus on the robots? I need to show him how shoddy Baxter's work really is."

He nodded. "Okay. Do me a favor and don't kill anybody. I don't need that on my conscience."

The turtles were at the top with Shredder. They drew their weapons. "Shredder, we've come for you," Leo said.

The man in the throne stood up. "So you're the creatures that my daughter has told me about. You are the children of Hamato Yoshi, aren't you? Or rather the accidents he took pity on and raised."

He put on his helmet. "I am Oroku Saki, but you may call me The Shredder"

Mikey took a big gulp. "Guys, we're in over our heads. We're dead."

"You aren't. That is, as long as you tell me where Hamato Yoshi is." Saki seemed eerily calm for someone that sounded so violent in stories.

Donatello gripped his staff. "No can do. You'll have to get that information over our dead bodies."

The armored being took a step closer. The blades popped out of his gauntlets. "And how do you propose that?"

Donnie rubbed the back of his neck. "We don't have to tell you, if you can get into my phone, you can track him. However, if you enter the wrong code to unlock it, it'll self destruct."

Saki raised an eyebrow. "Is this true?" He asked the others. They all nodded their heads.

He threw back his head and laughed. "Hand it over then. I don't want to kill you. If anything, I would appreciate it if you joined the Foot."

Don looked down at the ground. "I'm afraid that we can't do either, sir."

Shredder came near Donatello and picked him up by the belt.

The purple-clad turtle started kicking and panicking, but everything he hit was armor.

Shredder threw him down the stairs, watching him roll and tumble.

"Who's next?"

Mikey ran down after his brother. Don seemed okay. He had a few scrapes, but nothing major. They looked back at the remaining brothers.

Raph was cursing now. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"If you refuse to tell me, I will fight you for the answer."


	10. Chapter 10

The lies

"Well? Will you join me?" Saki asked.

Raph's eyes went cold, just like the night when he almost attacked Karai.

The red-clad turtle stepped forward. He was calm. Too calm. "What. The. Fu-"

He was interrupted by Leo clamping his hand over his mouth. Raph was fighting, trying to break free. "Leo, let me go! Didn't you see what he did to Donnie?"

"Yes, I did. But that's not how to try to stop a fight!"

Shredder chuckled. "See? You have a wonderful sense of honor. Join me!"

Raph began to draw his sais, then Leo motioned for him to stop. Leo looked Saki in the eye. "Maybe. First to have to tell us what makes you so great. We've heard stories. Did you really do the things you did?"

The man's expression grew somber. "Yes. I did. But you must understand that Hamato Yoshi killed my brother. He started it all."

"That's justified. I can see that. But you must understand that Nagi tried to kill Yoshi."

"But was it right for Yoshi to kill? Was it right to take my brother's life?" Saki's face was turning red.

"Sir?" Leo was scared. The Shredder suddenly seemed big and menacing again. "Are you okay? Look, we understand that what Splinter did was wrong, and he's sorry, but aren't to going a little bit too far?"

There was a deep laugh coming from within Shredder's helmet. "No. Do you think I'm okay? Do you think that my best friend killing my brother was nothing? Maybe I have gone too far, but you must see it through my eyes. What if I killed your brother? Wouldn't you want vengeance?"

"Then if that's the case, why the hell did you throw Don down the stairs?!" Raph interrupted.

Saki walked between the two and calmly came down the stairs. They watched silently. Whatever he was doing, it couldn't be that bad, right?

He picked on Donatello again. Donnie true kicking and shaking, but unfortunately, couldn't free himself.

"Let go of my big bro!" Mikey yelled as he jumped at Shredder. He stumbled back and fell, but got up unscathed.

"You thought that you could do that so easily?" Donatello was still in Saki's grip. Shredder's hand had moved up in the fall, making the turtle choke. He was scared of moving. What would happen if he moved just the wrong way? He would have blades stuck in his neck.

Saki realized what he was doing and grasped Donnie's belt again.

"Imagine if I kept my hand there. Wouldn't you be mad? Wouldn't you want revenge against me?"

Raph ran down first. "You futhermucker what the hell was that!" he yelled. He was ready to stab Shredder.

Shredder dodged him and grabbed Raph's sai.

"That's how you want to play? Fine. Stay with your criminal master, know that you are the bad guys here!" He spun around and elbowed Raph down.

Raph groaned in pain. "Shiz. What-" he slowly got up "-what the hell was that?"

Shredder glared at him. "You rejected my request, did you not? You never said yes, and your actions seem to say no."

He grabbed Raph by the tails of his bandana and whipped him forward, crashing into Donatello.

Raphael rolled over, off of his younger brother. "You okay bro?"

"Yes? No? I don't know anymore." The purple-clad turtle shakily sat up. Everything about him suddenly seemed so frail. Sure, he never was the strongest, but he just seemed so stricken with fear.

He slowly got to his feet, taking a deep breath that almost seemed to pain him. "I'm okay, at least." Raph looked at him in disbelief but kept going.

Mikey rammed into Saki from behind, attempting to knock him down. While Saki did stumble a little, he found his balance.

He turned around and stared at the short turtle. Mikey gave a large, innocent smile with puppy eyes that seemed to say he could do no wrong. For a moment he faltered as if it really worked, but then he proceeded to push the small thing down.

"You thought that would work on me?" He stepped on Mikey's back and began to pull his head back by the mask. "I will admit, for a moment there you did seem like a mere child, and I thought to myself, 'why fight a creature who can't fight back', but I realized that you aren't." Mikey's neck made a popping noise, making him groan in pain. "Are you a child? Maybe. Quite lethal for a child, however, and the son of my enemy nonetheless. But because you are a child," he got up, holding Mikey's hands to the ground, "I have the upper hand here."

Mikey now dangled from Saki's hand, limp. "Did Yoshi really send you out thinking that anybody would go easy on you because you're kids?"

Michelangelo looked the man in armor in the eye. "No. He never instilled such morals upon us. That kind of thinking is stupid." He swung back, then kicked The Shredder in the chest. His hands were free so he could move freely again. He pulled out his nunchucks and hit Shredder right in the face with them.

"You're being stupid, Oroku Saki!" he yelled. "Because guess what?"

A shuriken flew by Shredder's head, barely missing him. "These kids are gonna kick your ash." Leo finished.

Shredder looked. As all of this happened, the other three had pulled themselves together, holding their weapons tightly.

Baxter Stockman stood in front of Krang's beloved computer. No longer did it show statistics and calculations, now displaying programs to get robots running, and a small window showing a black and white feed of everyone fighting.

"They're away from their home. I can do it. I can retrieve that giant rat that my mouser saw!" He said eagerly.

Krang was in his bubble walker, crossing his little tentacles best he good. "Why do you need him? You could just as well use the Terrapins when Saki kills them."

Baxter shook his head. "The rat seems older. Frail. For you see, with the turtles there is no guarantee that they'll die here. The rodent, on the other hand, seems to be the perfect target."

He picked up a remote and hit a red button, speaking into it.

On the video feed, the Mousers downstairs stopped chomping at gang members. They began to go out the door.

April sat on the couch next to Splinter.

"Why did you let them do that?!" She yelled, slightly panicked.

"Why did Casey do that?" She buried her face in her hand and sighed.

Splinter gave her a pat on the back. "They will be okay. I let them do it because I have faith that they can make it out alive.

April's phone started to ring, interrupting their talk, as she then pulled it out. She saw the name 'Irma' over the number and then gave another sigh, just staring at the phone in her hand.

"Are you not going to answer?" Splinter asked her.

"She's going to want to know what's going on." April started to say as the phone then stopped ringing. "And I'm a terrible liar."

"Does that mean you should become a terrible friend tho?" Splinter asked her while looking over at the phone, which started to ring again.

April closed her eyes, then opened them and answered, starting with a surprised sounding "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me, Irma!" Irma started to say over the phone. "Have you spoken to Casey?" I can't reach him, and I'm getting worried, I mean, he always does this, but.."

"No, I haven't," Apri said, biting her bottom lip as Splinter stood up. "I haven't spoken to him all day."

"Cause someone from school said he saw you two earlier.." Irma started saying with a more stern sounding tone. "And you have that nervous voice when you lie." "So I'm asking you April, as your best friend, what's going on? Where's Casey?! Is he with you?!"

"Irma, I'm real busy right now, I gotta go!" April shouted as Irma pleaded for the truth, and April rudely hung up on her, turning off her phone completely.

Splinter looked at her, saying nothing, but giving a look of disapproval.

"You don't know Irma like I do!" April started saying as she placed her phone back up. "She can't keep a secret, and there's noooo way she'll be able to handle something like this."

"I'm sure she will understand." " She will be fine." Splinter said in a reassuring voice, as then his eyes darted to look down at the floor, unnoticed by April, his body language saying the complete opposite.

You now see Baxter walking over to a vinyl record player in his lab, starting to play a classical song from it. He starts humming to it, the lyrics are sung in French, walking over to a humanoid looking machine. With its back exposed, he places his hands into its robotic gloves, legs into its feet. Starting to sing the correct words, and on key, he places a metal helmet over his head, attached to wires plugged into the ceiling.

"Mega Mouser online," Baxter says to himself, grinning afterward. You now see thru his helmet eyes the same view of a seven-foot-tall metal crunching Mouser robot. Seeing a brick wall in front of himself, Baxter punches with his right fist, Mega Mouser doing the same. The brick wall starts crumbling down from the impact, and Mega Mouser steps out, walking as Baxter in his lab walks. Mega Mouser gets in line behind smaller versions, having been secretly stored in an abandoned building.

"Chomp," Baxter says. Mega Mouser outside does just that, opening, then closing its massive titanium razor-sharp jagged mouth. Baxter laughs a little, starting to run now in his suit. Mega Mouser does the same, running past the other mousers, even stepping on some of them in the way. Baxter then clears his throat to say " people of New York, prepare for the horror of certified genius Dr. Baxter Jullian Stockman!" The Mega Mouser simply flash its eyes red, and says out loud in a robotic voice, "DIE!"

Hun is seen shooting a machine gun, firing right into a cluster of foot soldiers. The sound of the machine gun shooting out a bullet a second, puncturing holes into the machines as they make mechanical sounds and fall to the floor, their wounds showing their inner workings, to the sound of dying wires and cogs.

Casey zooms by on skates, lowering himself to swing his hockey stick hard at the foot soldiers legs, trying to trip them up, yet they just simply whirl their heads to follow his direction all across the room. One jumps on Caseys back, wrapping its arms and legs around Casey like a pretzel. "SOMEBODY BAT ME," Casey yelled. A nearby purple dragon woman, the one named Dolly, gets done plunging a metal baseball bat into the left eye of a foot soldier. Its body was seen squirming, sparking some, before laying motionless, deactivated. Dolly then puts out her bat to the rolling by Casey. Casey grabs the bat, and toss her back the hockey stick, yelling 'Trade!", as Dolly smirks at him.

Casey takes the bat and jabs at the back of his right side, hard, starting to shatter the foot soldiers robotic ribs. Casey swirls around, as the foot soldier on his back swat at the baseball bat. Casey skates backward and slams back first into a wall, and the footsoldier slides down and off of Casey. Casey swirls back around to face him, yelling "GOOMGOMBA!", and starts swinging the bat up and down at the footsoldiers face, smashing it in.

Hun stops firing his gun, still clicking the trigger, but no bullets firing out, a foot soldier rushes to him, and Hun says with a shrug "Bump it!". He takes the back of the gun and starts bashing it into that foot soldiers face, the foot soldiers head swirls around, a good four times. Hun then pulls out two handguns from his waist and starts shooting into that robot, and other foot soldiers, yelling out in rage.

You now see a Caucasian male in a police uniform, in a police car hearing a woman's voice on his intercom while he's driving. "We have numerous calls about a group of metal men parading in the streets, threatening folks, and tearing up city property." The dispatcher started to say. "Sightings report they are armed and dangerous, need any available units.."

"Still requesting backup for the tripped security alarm at the one place." Another man started to say over the intercom, interrupting the woman. "Group of gang members was seen heading to a building nearby, the whole lot of them, sources saying!" "Could be that Purple Dragon gang."

The man in the police car grabs the intercom walkie and starts talking into it. "I'll swing by the costumed pranksters, and then meet up after at the gang sighting." The man said.

"Copy that Jack." The woman dispatcher replied back saying.

"What's those locations?" The man called Jack asked, putting on his police sirens, with them flashing red and blue, and a loud sound blaring out the rest of the conversation.

April and Splinter start walking to the exit, as Splinter place out his left hand and tell April to stop. "Wha?" April asks with a puzzled look on her face, standing still while looking over at Splinter now.

Splinters rat ears start wiggling, his tail swinging from the right to left as he then says "I hear something." "Many."

Splinter grips his right hand around his cane, and Aprils eyes start getting big, as she points to the forward munching, walking horde of small, giant-jawed robots. Mega Mouser walks behind them, looking over at April and Splinter, eyes glowing red and chomping its jaws.

"MOUSERS!" she yelled. "How did they!?" as Splinter interrupts her by yelling out "RUN!" and they both turn around, looking panicked, running.

The transparent bug creature known as Mal crawls quickly on the ceiling, looking down at the turtles and Shredder, still engaged in their talk, and fight. "No more talking!" Shredder is seen saying in front of the four turtles. His blades slide back into his gauntlets, as he then says, "Let's begin."

Leonardo charges at him first, slashing his katana to the left, as Shredder sidesteps out the way on the stairs, and Raph stabs at Shredder with a sai to his neck and stomach, Shredder grabbing Raph's right arm, while blocking the stomach sai with his left armed gauntlet.

Leo jabs his katana at Shredders back, yet Shredder avoids it by simply turning around, and placing Raph in the way, forcing Leo to stop, millimeters away from puncturing into Raphs waist. With the Shredder watching Leo and Raph, Donnie places his bo staff around Shredders neck, like a noose. Shredder backflips, gripping the staff underneath his neck as he does, wiggling free that way and landing behind a surprised Donnie.

Donnie turns around, Leo and Raph charge, all three from his left side, with Mikey swinging his Nunchucks behind Shredder, about to swing them at his helmeted head. Shredder elbow jabs Mikey in the stomach, his back still turned to him, glancing back at him to swing his right arm bladed gauntlet at Mikey's face, making contact as it slashes against him, having him fall down in pain with a yell.

Shredder turns his attention to Donnie, to which he crouches down, and swipes his left foot at Donnie's feet, tripping him up, and then punching him in the face with both fists, twice, stunning him, as Donnie lands on the stairs, hard. Raph jumps at Shredder, yelling in rage, Shredder shifts his body to move out the way of Raph's sais. He then grabbed Raph by his neck in a headlock, flips him upside down, and drops him on his head, before kicking him in the face with his right foot.

He lets go of Raph, his turtle body falling down legs first to the stairs, as Shredder then ducks down, the sound of Leos Katana slicing thru the air, missing Shredders neck. Shredder turns around to face Leo, Leo already jabbing his katana at Shredders gut, Shredder blocking with his right gauntlet, as the sound of the katana hitting the gauntlet echoes on the stairs. Shredder then grabs Leos right arm with his left, quickly twisting it, headbutting, then kicking into Leos right knee, with Leo yelling out, and dropping his katana to the floor.

Shredders blades slide out from his gauntlets, slashing both of them at Leo, as Leo moves out the way, diving to the stairs, and grabbing his katana with a sprained arm, as Shredders blades slice into the right side railing of the stairs. The cuts slice clean through and cause the stairs to collapse. The turtles, and Shredder all fall down with chunks of the stairs, crashing down below into a large electrical room. Everyone lands on the floor, surrounded by generators, computer network stations, and fuse boxes.

Everyone starts getting up, all with injuries except Shredder. Sparks start from the damaged equipment in the room, and Shredder stands on top of the debris. The lights start flickering on and off every few seconds as the turtles stand to their feet, holding their weapons, one turtle in each direction of Shredder. They glance at each other, nodding in silence, while Shredder breathes in and out, sparks going off all over, the lights continuously switching on and off. Leo says out loud, "Ready!"

And everyone except Shredder screams out "FIGHT!" rushing towards him. Shredder yells, and at this point, the lights flicker off, and now all you see, is darkness.


	11. Chapter 11

The Truths

You see April the caucasian college woman, and the talking rat called Splinter hiding in a room, the sounds of destruction heard outside. "We must leave this place." Splinter said to her, pacing back and forth.

"Where's the other exits?" April asked, standing up on a bed, body shaking.

"The only way out is the same way they came in." Splinter answers.

April jumps off the bed, and goes to the room door, cracking it open, peeking out.

With her eye still peering thru the door crack, she sees the mechanical giant-jawed robots called Mousers chomping everything in their way. The chairs, television set, even the refrigerator being eaten, whole. "We'll never get thru." April started to say. "They have us surrounded!"

"It will be too late by the time my sons find us." Splinter said, stopping to sit down on the floor.

"We're about to die!" April shouted. "How can you be so calm!"

"I plan on fighting my way out, whatever lies for me afterward." Splinter started saying. "Are you, Ms. April?"

April glanced around the room, asking what they can use for weapons, walking over to the bed mattress, and lifting it up, looking down at some magazines and quickly dropping the mattress, looking flustered, blushing without knowing.

"This is Raphaels room." Splinter said. "Surely he must have weapons lying around."

"Not seeing any," April said while looking under the bed, and behind a cabinet.

"They are coming closer." Splinter said with a puff after. "We need to leave to another room, buy some time."

"Even if we can sneak past the small ones, there's the big giant one still out there!" April said.

"Then we are best to stay quiet, and unseen." Splinter said, starting to smirk. "Way of the Shinobi."

"Good thing you're a ninja master," April says to him, giving him a thumbs up.

"Agreed." Splinter says to her, giving her back a thumbs up.

Baxter is seen in his lab, still having his body placed inside the Mega Mouser remote controlled suit. "My Mousers are a waste of funding he says." "Not as good as the robo foot, pfft!" Baxter says out loud to himself. "I'm going to kill that rat first, killing the woman will be an experimental bonus!"

The Mega Mouser keeps saying "Die Die Die!" over and over, instead of Baxters talk inside the Mega Mouser helmet. The seven-foot-tall Mega Mouser keeps walking around, looking behind desks, gym equipment and such. It steps on the smaller ones, crushing them under its feet, with the sounds of a final screech from them, followed by crushed steel.

April opens up the door, slowly, crouching down, and walking out first, Splinter doing the same. "After you", April whispers to Splinter. Splinter nods, Splinter getting on all fours, leading the way, April doing the same, as chewed up papers scatter across the room. A toaster lands by April, tossed by one of the Mousers, almost making her yell. She covers her mouth to stop herself, Splinter never pausing, as he leads her past the couch, and behind more furniture.

Splinter points to a rectangular spot in the wall, a vent shaft created to flow clean air from above the sewers, installed by Donnie, while the Mousers keep chewing up everything in sight, and the Mega Mouser starts picking things up and slamming them to the walls across the rooms.

Splinter and April stop at the vent shaft, and Splinter wraps his rat tail around the bars, pulling it with surprising strength, letting it drop to the floor, making a loud clank. All Mousers stop and turn their attention to the side of the room where the noise came from. All at once, they walk towards April and Splinter, who are already crawling inside, very quickly.

"There you are!" Baxter said in his lab, still looking thru the eyes of the Mega Mouser, making it run to the vent, stopping to look down at it, seeing how he's clearly too large to enter. One by one the Mousers jump into the vent, jaws still chomping, and Mega Mouser goes to the nearby door, rips it off its hinges, and runs inside a sewer hallway.

Splinter is now seen bashing thru a bar vent shaft in another room, this one up top. He drops down, landing on his feet with April looking scared, looking behind her, seeing and hearing the incoming Mousers. "Jump!" Splinter yelled to her, holding his arms out. April does, and Splinter catches her, setting her down on her feet. They both look around, as April ask where they are at.

They both see a large all-terrain van like vehicle and Splinter says, "Donnie's garage."

"Is that thing working!?" April asked, running with Splinter to it, sliding open the right side door, with Splinter never responding to the question, unsure himself as he jumps inside, looking around at computerized equipment, and yet still roomy.

"Where's the keys?" April asked him, stepping inside, closing the door behind her. "They'll be here any minute!"

A male voice is now heard, with everything it says, being shown on all screens inside the van in text. "Welcome!" says the voice. " I am Artifical Intelligence program Metalhead." "Please type or voice password."

"I do not understand..." Splinter started to say, looking around with a marveled look on his face.

"Password or else I must deactivate and self-destruct as per my maker's wishes," Metalhead said.

"WHAT!" April yelled.

"Incorrect password," Metalhead responded. "Security program engaged. "

"Pizza." Splinter said.

"Correct!" Metalhead stated. "I'm quite happy you knew the password, for we just met and to dismantle myself before any conversation would have been quite sad I imagine."

"How did you know!?" April asked, looking at Splinter.

"No, I mean, I smell it." "It's faint, but still lingers. Splinter replied. "Pepperoni."

"Did you bring friends?" Metalhead asked. "I'm detecting others nearby."

"No!" April started yelling. "We need to get the hell out of here!"

"Turn of phrase, hah!" "I compute that!" Metalhead said as the van's engine started, and the wheels turned. "Where to, please state the desired destination."

"Far away from this place!" April yelled as Splinter picked up a slice of pizza from an almost empty pizza box tucked away behind the side of the driver's seat.

"Mapping coordinates, detecting spikes in adrenaline, suggested a fear response." Metalhead started saying. "Shall I punch it?"

"Punch it!" April and Splinter both yelled, as Metalhead told them to buckle up, and moving the gear shift, and turning the wheel on its own, headlights shine as the vehicle starts speeding off in the sewers, with a could of smoke behind it.

Mikey dropkicks Shredder, kicking him to Raph. Shredder spins around, catching one of Raph's sais between his gauntlet blades, then punch Raph in the stomach. The lights keep turning on and off, as Donnie jumps from off the left wall and leaps at Shredder with his bo staff plunging down. Shredder leans back, just in time to block Leos katana, swinging wildly as Shredder blocks every swing with his gauntlet blades. Right, left, down, up, down, right, down, left, right, up the katana slice in front of Shredders face. Mikey slides at Shredders feet, trying to use the nunchuck chains to wrap around them and make him fall.

Shredder sidesteps over, elbow jabs Donnie in the neck, ducks under Leos katana, then backflips over Raph. Shredder then swings his arms, the gauntlet blades slicing into the nearby fuse boxes, creating sparks as they do, now having Leo parry every swing. Shredder kicks Leo in the chest, glanced over to Raph on his left. Shredder turns his own left arm, and swings those blades underneath both of Raphs sais, slicing underneath Raphs arms, while he kicks at Mikey's feet, stepping on Mikey's right foot, then wrapping his leg around Mikeys, sending Mikey to the ground. Mikey rolls to the floor, Leo running back over at Shredder, jumping over Mikey.

Donnie pokes his bo staff at Shredder, at the same time Raph stabs at Shredder. Shredder grabs the bo staff and turns it, to block the sai aimed at his chest, and waist, both sais now stuck in the wood of the bo staff. Sparks shoot off again as Shredder twirls the staff, knocking it across Donnie and Raph's head, making both of them stumble back. Shredder then places the staff to the ground, swings around it, kicking his legs to Leo's face, before landing on his feet to swing the staff up underneath Mikey's chin.

It uppercuts Mikey, sending him to fall on his back, on the ground next to Leo. Shredder pokes the staff at Raphs neck, then swinging the staff under Raphs feet as Raph holds to his throat, sending him to the floor. Shredder sees Donnie, Donnie punching at him now. Shredder twirls the staff, repeatedly swinging it and hitting Donnie's ribs. Donnie falls to the ground, and Shredder tosses the bo staff at them to the ground.

"Keep it," Shredder said.

Raph was the first to get up, charging at Shredder in a fit of rage. Raph punched with his right, Shredder blocked. Raph punched with his left, then right again, Shredder blocked and grabbed both of Raphs arms, twisting them, and kicking him in the gut. "Mutants," Shredder said, before twirling around to roundhouse kick Raph across the head, then slicing his right blades across Raphs chest. It made Raph fling back and into a server box, knocking it over, laying on top of it, bleeding, as sparks shoot out from the server box.

Donnie charged at Shredder next, kicking at Shredder, lights still flickering on and off. Shredder did a handstand, and wrapped his legs around Donnie's neck, to choke him to death, turning over to his side, falling to the ground with Donnie. "Freaks!" Shredder said as he bent over, releasing his grip, and with Donnie face down to the floor, stabbed him in the shell with his left gauntlet blades. Shredder stood back up, Mikey doing the same, as he now charged for Shredder.

Mikey jumped from the left wall to the right, dropkicking at Shredder. Shredder grabs his leg, and swings him at another server box, letting go, and Mikey lands next to it laid out. Shredder rushes over, and takes his right hand, grabs Mikey's head, and bash the back of it into the glass server machine door. "Abominations," Shredder said, as he then stabs his blades repeatedly into Mikey's right leg. Mikey screams out in pain, then falls over to the ground, as Shredder stands back up, looking over at Leo while he holds his katana in front of himself.

Shredder just walks towards Leo, his arms stretched out to both sides of him, with his blades slicing into everything, creating sparks from it, while Leo starts shaking, and Shredder comes closer with the sound of nails on a chalkboard, and with light/darkness from the overhead lamps.

"I'm known as the product named Shell Tazer, tho I do like to be called Metalhead, simply for short," Metalhead said in the Shell Tazer.

April and Splinter made their way to the front seats, putting on seatbelts as the Shell Tazer plows thru walls after walls. "We'll have to go back thru those Mousers," April said to Splinter, seated in the driver's seat.

"Once they come in contact with this, they'll simply chew it to shreds." Splinter started to say. "We must make our escape when we see an opening, literally."

"This sounds like a plan to which I will cease to exist," Metalhead said. "I do not like this plan." "I do not like this plan at all." The Shell Tazer comes to a halt, seeing the army of Mousers walking towards it.

"What other choice do we have?" April asked.

"Weapon systems engaged," Metalhead said. "Shall I fire at them?" "I like this plan much better."

"Fire everything you got!" April replied, and Splinter gave her a thumbs up, Metalhead saying "Thumbs up from me too." "If I had thumbs." "Just imagine I have thumbs."

A barrage of weapons start working, the Shell Tazer going in reverse, full speed as it does. The Mousers start falling apart, giving out a robotic shrill as their last action before being deactivated/destroyed. The giant Mega Mouser breaks thru a nearby wall and runs towards the Shell Tazer.

"CHOMP, CHOMP, CHOMP!" Baxter is seen yelling in his lab, as the Mega Mouser keeps chomping its jaws in front of the Shell Tazer, running up to it closer.

"Out of ammo," Metalhead said.

"Outrun it." Splinter said.

"It will catch up from speed analysis," Metalhead said.

April takes off her seatbelt, knowing they are out of options, and hugs Splinter, as Metalhead says "I do not like to be called Shell Tazer."

The engine revs up even louder, and as Mega Mouser opens up its jaws to crunch down on it, jolts of electricity shoot from out of the Shell Tazer, and into Mega Mouser.

"Yet, I can taze, "Metalhead said, the stream of electricity overloading Mega Mouser, making pieces of it fall off and blow up.

The electric feedback goes back to Baxter, seen in his lab now screaming, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as he then slumps to the ground, and pass out, the Mega Mouser slumping down to the ground, and fully breaking apart, with its pieces on the ground, giving out a robotic shrill, as if copying Baxters scream. Mega Mousers eyes go out, and no more movement.

April and Splinter hug each other, as Metalhead spoke to say. "Low battery reserves, requiring a system reboot..." "Is this.. what it would feel like to die...?"

April sadly pats the dashboard and says that he'll come back after a long nap.

"Friends?" Metalhead asked.

"We are your friends, yes." Splinter said with a happy look. "Machine or not, you saved us." "Arigato."

"You did," April said with a smile after.

"Then..." Metalhead started to say. "It was worth it, to save my friends." Not another word of metalhead is spoken, as the screens turn off, and the headlights go dim. Splinter lays back in the seat, leaning towards the side, whispering "you did good."

April lays her head on the dashboard, looking out the windshield, saying "thank you" to Metalhead, as not another word is spoken from him, and the headlights finally go out.

Shredder slashes his right blades at Leo, Leo ducks, then blocks with his Katana. Shredder jabs at Leo with his left blades, tho Leo blocks it with the back of his katana. "You think you can beat me!" Shredder starts saying, kicking at Leo. Leo blocks Shredders leg with one of his, Shredder swings his blades at Leo's head, right as Leo jumps back to avoid them. "Weak!" Shredder yells. "Just like your master!"

Leo slice with his katana, walking back towards Shredder as he does. Shredder walking back as he blocks the blows with his gauntlets and speaks as the lights stay flickering on and off. "You really think you know the line between light?" The lights were on, showing the two of them fighting, as the lights then turn off. "And darkness?" Shredder asked. "You think your sensei walks in the light, but you clearly can't see the darkness of him!"

"Like you're some kind of hero!" Leo yelled out at him. "You're no martyr!"

"And neither are you." Shredder started to say. "Leonardo."

"At least I can come to grips with that!" Leo said, the two still exchanging blows, and blocking them.

"You're soo young." "And naive about the world." Shredder starts saying. "So was I." It doesn't matter what side you think you're on." "Or what side you really are, cause all that matters.."

Shredder jabs his right blades at Leo's face, Leo holding his katana between both blades, a centimeter away from the blades going into his eyes, as they look at each other.

"Is that you survive." Shredder finished saying, before pulling back and doing a flurry of slashes and kicks at Leo. Everything in front of Shredder gets sliced up, as Leo runs, sparks from the cuts everywhere, as Shredder yells "He took it all away from me!" "EVERYTHING!"

The ceiling starts collapsing, as Shredder leaps back, and out the way of a large chunk of it by his feet, separating him from Leo. Shredder starts cutting up all the debris around and in front of him, still too much to get thru fast enough. Shredder screams, as Leo gather up the others, and help them up, walking them to the exit door.

"This isn't over!" Shredder yelled. "Death comes for you all, and it will not leave without taking a victim!"

"We gotta get home!" Raph yelled.

"Home..." The transparent bug lady known as Mal whispered to herself, secretly watching from inside the room while invisible, running behind them as they all ran past the Purple Dragons, footbots, the turtles telling them to "move it!"

Police sirens are heard as Tigerclaw, Bebop, Rocksteady, and Karai stand up on the rafters, looking down below. Tigerclaw growls as Karai says "No." "Our fight is over."

"We can take the coppers", Rocksteady said, punching his right fist in the palm of his left hand.

"Pretty sure we can take 'em," Bebop said.

"Seventy-thirty," Rocksteady replied.

"Find father, then retreat for now," Karai said as they see a squad of police cars pulls up outside, and the cops pull out their guns.

Everyone nods in silence, and Karai throws down a smoke bomb, the smoke cover in front of the four, and seconds later as the smoke starts going away, the four are nowhere to be seen.

A police officer woman puts handcuffs on Hun, as he and the other Purple Dragons get put in the back of the squad cars. "Lawyer," Hun said with a smirk, before being read his rights, and sitting down in the back of a car.

Hun is now seen getting placed inside a cell, and a man in a trenchcoat lays on the bed, his back to Hun. "What are you in for?" Hun asked him.

"For having no clothes on." The man said, still not moving.

"Stupid." "I'll be out of here soon anyways." Hun said, sitting down on the floor.

"Somebody wanna tell me what's really going on?" A blonde haired lady said by her desk, with her name on an award that reads 'Rebecca Vincent' 'Chief of the New York Police Department'.

A policeman holding a folder starts talking to her inside the room. "It's all in the report here Chief." "Something about talking turtles and robot ninjas."

"Are you serious!?" Rebecca scoffed. "And what's up with the lawyer outside?

"He's claiming a lawsuit against the department if we don't let his clients ago." The policeman said.

Rebecca looks at him with squinty eyes, asking him if he has enough to do it. "He's well-known mam." "He's been known to sue the California police precinct." "And win." The policeman said to her.

The policeman tries to give the folder to Rebecca, who simply tells him that she's not going to read about this make-believe story, and to leave it on her desk.

Rebecca opens up the door, and the policeman asks her what is she going to do. "I'm going to release his clients", she said. "This time."

Casey looks at his phone, trying to reach April, but his calls going straight to her voicemail, not knowing she turned it off. He knocks on an apartment door, and Irma opens it.

"Hey!" "I'm sorry I missed your..." Casey started to say as Irma looked at him.

"I wanna know." Irma starts saying with sadness in her voice.

"Know..?" Casey asks with a puzzled look.

"You're cheating on me with her." "Aren't you?" She asked.

"Nah, no, i.." Casey started to say, interrupted by Irma again.

"I see the way you look at her!" "Talk about her!" "You spend all your time with her!" Irma yelled.

"She's just helping me with my studies!" Casey protested.

Irma shook her head, starting to cry, as she asks him what's the truth.

"Irma.." Casey started to say sadly. "Cmon, please.."

"What's the truth, Casey?" Irma asked him. "Do you like her?"

Casey gets quiet, closing his eyes before opening them to calmly say, "yes, but, It's not what you think!"

"What am I supposed to think!" Irma yells with crying. "Tell me the truth!" "I deserve to know that damnit!"

"I, I can't." Casey started to say. "You just gotta believe me on that!" "Irma, I love you!"

"Yeah," Irma said sadly, wiping away tears. "I loved you too."

"What.." Casey starts saying before Irma talks.

"It's over Casey," Irma said. "I'm tired of waiting up for you." "I'm tired of you keeping secrets, and the lies." Irma shakes her head, about to breakdown again. "You was even my first, everything, but I can't."

"Just tell me the truth", Irma says to Casey with pleading, crying eyes. "Please." "Are you going to stop?"

"No," Casey says sadly, looking down at the floor.

"Goodbye Casey." Irma cries out, closing the door, and then locking it, as Casey starts walking away, and Irma is seen sliding down the door, falling to her knees, and sobbing.

Baxter opens his eyes, looking down at a large vial of green colored ooze. He then looks up, seeing himself tied up, upside down, and Shredder with his armor off, standing next to Krang on his walking machine.

"I see you're awake, Stockman." Shredder started to say. "I do hope you had a pleasant dream."

"What's going on!?" Baxter yelled.

"You betrayed me," Shredder said. "I told you no more mousers." "And I told you the rat was mine."

"Quite the opposite!" Baxter started stuttering. "I just wanted to prove my loyalty to you by getting rid of him for you!"

"Then you shall prove your devotion," Shredder replied. "By taking the plunge."

"Wait no, Lord Shredder I was just.." Baxter started rambling on still as Shredder looks at Krang, and then press a button on a side panel near him, looking bored, and Baxter is dropped into the vial of ooze known as mutagen.

Baxter screams, splashing in, and krang looks down at the sight, screeching out his name with a delighted look and laughter of Baxter's pain.

"KRANGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!"

Baxter's head comes up to the surface, skin starting to melt off, as his left eye starts changing, moaning in pain to Krangs screaming delight.

"Our home was destroyed my sons, yes." Splinter is seen saying to the turtles.

"Where will we go now?" Mikey asked.

"I don't know." Splinter replied. "We will find someplace." "We always do."

"I'll try to find something for you all," April says to them. "It's just, I gotta.."

"Go." Splinter said to April.

"Are you sure cause.." April started to say.

"You have someplace to be tonight." Splinter started to say to the sounds of the aching, bruised, in pain turtles. "We will take shelter in the van."

"Okay," April said sadly. "But call me if you need anything, I'm there."

April waved goodbye to them, as Leo looked over at Splinter.

"We went thru all that, saved all this, and this is how we're repaid?" Leo starts to say."Losing our home, beaten half to death, and living in secret by the people who make fun and repulsed by us to live on the streets in a van!"

"It's not fair," Leo said with tears in his eyes.

"No." "It's not", Splinter said to him sadly. "It's not."

Hun and the rest of the purple dragons are seen leaving out the police station, as Rebecca walks into her office, seeing Jack on all fours looking around.

"Kurtzman!" Rebecca said. "What tha heck are you doing!?

"You said you left the files on the desk", Kurtzman said, standing up. "I'm telling you chief, there are weird things happening all around this city!"

"You keep talking like that Kurtzman, and you won't have a job in this precinct!" Rebecca said, walking over to her office chair, starting to sit down.

"I don't want goblin and dragon tales, I want hard-hitting, criminal proof!" Rebecca followed up by saying. "And I left it right here..." Rebecca now looking in her desk drawers, a confused look on her face.

You now see Shredder sitting down in silence, looking over at a ripped up, but taped back up photo of him, human Splinter, and a lady when they were younger. The three of them hugging and looking happy. Shredder sighs, whispering goodnight, as he then lays down, turning off the room light.

You now see Krang looking over the Mega Mouser suit rubbing a pink tentacle under his chin, saying out loud to himself, "Metal suit man...hmm..." "Krangggg..."

You now see Casey resting his head on Aprils left shoulder, crying, as she sadly pets him at his home, whispering to him "it's going to be okay," over and over. Casey clings to her, sobbing harder.

You now see Irma placing all of Casey's things in boxes, from hockey posters to a valentines day card. She then tosses one box to the ground, and hear glass shatter. She peeks inside the box, moving things out the way, and seeing green colored ooze starting to seep thru the bottom of the box. She gets up to grab a wet towel, returns to clean up the mess, looking at the liquid, taking her hand to rub it between her fingers. She looks at it, asking herself out loud what it is, then bringing it to her nose to sniff it. She wipes it on her shirt, and then wipes away her tears, unknown to her that her hand was just glowing...

You now see the trenchcoat man from the jail, only seeing the back of him, walk into a room, and toss off the trenchcoat, revealing a business suit underneath it, setting down the folder from the police headquarters, a closeup of the file folder labeled 'The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'. The man in the business suit adjusts his tie, as you see Mal, now visible in orange and green skin, in a large test tube, screaming.

"Send me home!" "Home!" Mal yells, banging her fists at the glass, as the businessman, still seen just from behind shakes his head no, and without a word, moves his hand next to the file folder, over a tray full of torture and medical devices, from long needles to hacksaws.

"Alert." "Alert" a voice from Baxter's lab is heard saying. "Unauthorized entry from the dimension rift." "Shutdown sequence aborted, lifeform now entering." You see Krangs dimensional portal start opening up, and the view zooms in on the portal, as you start seeing someone..or something coming thru, revealing to be...

End of Season One


End file.
